Mad Cat
by fanfictionmakermachine
Summary: After a mission gone wrong completely shatters Catboy's faith in his teammates, an encounter with Romeo ends in disaster, leaving them to think he's perished. Later, Owlette and Gekko are investigating a new hero in town. A violent new hero who doesn't hold his punches against the nighttime villains and seems to have a huge grudge against the PJ Masks.
1. Mission Gone Wrong

And here it is! My first story for this fandom. I have worked pretty hard on this and I'm happy I can finally publish the first two chapters. Hope you all enjoy it. If you do, please leave a review! I'll try to update soon, but since I'm in theiddle of my exams, I can't say an exact date. I'll try my best. Until then, enjoy!

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Chapter 1: Mission Gone Wrong

"This is so not what I had in mind when I suggested team bonding exercises!" exclaimed a very distressed and very annoyed Catboy as he jumped to avoid Night Ninja's sticky splats. The cat themed superhero did his best to dodge the balls of sticky goo coming at him, but it proved to be a difficult task without his Super Cat Speed. He already used it so much that night that he barely had any energy left and became so exhausted that further use of his ability could cause severe damage. And he didn't even have the time to stop and regain his stamina, because Night Ninja and his Ninjalinos have been bombarding him with attacks nonstop.

After a few minutes of dancing away from the splats, he noticed a fire ladder on the side of a house next to him and used it to launch himself to the top of the building and finally managed to find some cover after he launched himself over the edge of the roof and ducked behind it. As he tried to catch his breath, he noticed his teammates also found the same hiding spot.

"Believe us, we all feel that way." Owlette quipped and from the corner of his, he saw from Gekkos's expression that he shared the sentiments of their bird themed companion. Catboy couldn't say he blamed them. Utterly frustrated with his team's current situation, he found himself reviewing the events of the night trying to understand how did they end up in this situation?

It all started with the villanous ninjas stealing a valuable painting of the town founders from the museum, which Connor found odd. Granted, they raided the museum before, but it was different this time. Only that one painting was missing and the ninjas made it as obvious as they could that they stole it. The Ninjalino footprints were all over the scene and they even found toy figure of Night Ninja at the scene. Leave it to him to be busted by his own narcissism.

Catboy just couldn't fathom why would he steal only one thing, something that the Masks didn't even have any emotional attachment to and while he may not have been the greatest ninja who ever lived, he was good at covering his tracks. It almost looked like as if he wanted them to track him down. He shared his concern with his teammates, but they just shrugged it off. They were more concerned about getting the artwork back. This worried Catboy. Owlette and Gekko were acting a little too reckless for their own good sometimes. He also made this mistake several times before, but he's learned. As the team's leader who just recently turned seven, he couldn't afford to be reckless.

Fueling his suspicion was the fact that the painting was very easy to find. Almost too easy. The entire thing just had „TRAP" written all over it. And he was right. As soon as they reached the painting, which they have located in an abandoned warehouse down the docks, the ninjas instantly ambushed. Night Ninja didn't want to steal anything from the museum. He just wanted to finally score a victory over the heroes. It was clear that the villain became obsessed with finally beating the PJ Masks. Connor didn't know when did Night Ninja become so obsessed with them.

Come to think of it, when did the Ninjalinos and their boss get so effective in combat? The last time they met was like any other encounters between the small ninja army and the animal themed superhero trio of the night. It's like Night Ninja actually managed to come up with a plan and organize his minions to effectively fight off the Masks and Connor hated to admit it, but that surprised him. He let the team's previous victories over him get into his head and he underestimated him. They all did. And now here they were. Pinned down by a seemingly endless number of sticky splats, Ninjalinos around every corner and an angry, revenge obsessed Night Ninja who was going to stop at nothing to beat them. So, to put it plainly, things looked bad for them.

"Owlette, see if they are still on to us." he commanded the winged girl next to him. She activated her Owl Eyes and ever so slightly peeked over their cover. She saw the Ninjalinos down on the street as they muttered among themselves in confusion. It was clear they didn't know where did the heroes disappear to.

"We lost them." she reported. Catboy let out a sigh of relief, a feeling which was visible on the faces of his comrades too.

"Good. Get us out of here, Gekko." Gekko didn't need to be told twice. He activated his Gekko-Mobile's remote control on his wrist – one of the heroes' most recent upgrade on their vehicles – turned it invisible and gave the auto pilot the team's current location.

„It will be here in two minutes." the boy in green informed, making Catboy nod in acknowledgement.

„So what do we do in the meantime?" Owlette asked.

„How about figuring out how to stop Night Ninja?" Catboy turned to her with unconcealed frustration in his voice. They wouldn't be in this situation if they have listened to him before. Apparently, Owlette was aware of it as she sank back at hearing what he said in shame. She knew he was right to be upset.

„Hey! Back off, will you?" Gekko asked, noticing Catboy's tone. „Your attitude doesn't relly help either." Realizing that he had a point, Catboy laid off of them to think. As he brainstormed, Gekko's communicator signaled, meaning the Gekko-Mobil has arrived. „Thank goodness, our ride is here." Gekko remarked as he pressed another button on the panel on his wristand the vehicle became visible. The heroes hopped in and took off right back to HQ.

„So, any plans, Catboy?" Owlette asked once they were on their way.

„I don't know." he admitted grimly. „Night Ninja won't stop until he has us beaten, so stopping him definitely won't be as simple as getting the painitng back."

"Well maybe we should cut him off from every possible way to beat us." Gekko suggested. "Then he'll realize he's fighting a lost battle and stand down."

"Yeah, but how?" Catboy mused. "I have never seen him so determined before. Honestly, it's almost scary."

"Don't worry, Catboy." Owlette said rassuringly as she put a hand on the feline costumed boy's shoulder. "You'll figure it out. You always do." Despite the situation, Catboy couldn't help, but smile at the girl's reassurance. Owlette seemed to have a way to always bring the best out of him even in the most dire of situations, such as this one. The kind support she showed him at that moment made him feel bad for snapping at her earlier. He'll definitely have to apologize to her later. But for now, he must focus on the mission. And then, the perfect idea hit him.

"Do you have an idea?" Owlette asked, noticing his expression.

"Yes!" he exclaimed triumphantly. "Remembered how Gekko used the Owl Glider once to trap Luna Girl and secure the HQ when she tried to take over it? Maybe we could try that again. That way, Night Ninja won't be able to cause anymore trouble and without him, the Ninjalinos won't know what to do."

"Great idea, Catboy!" Gekko cheered. "But what about the painting?"

"With Night Ninja locked up in the glider, no one will stop us from getting it back, the Ninjalinos will be lost without him. In fact, maybe we could use that painting against the one who stole it!"

"Really? How?" Owlette asked.

"Let's get back to HQ first. I'll tell you everything there." the other two heroes didn't object and soon they were approaching the giant totem pole that served as their base.. They were glad they had a leader like Catboy. He always thought of everything and had great plans.

"Good thinking!" Owlette complimented. She raised her fist and extended it towards Catboy, who quickly realized what was her intention and bumped his fist against hers, which was joined by Gekko's, who reached back from the driver seat.

"IT'S TIME TO BE A HERO!" they all shouted before laughing. "Though, Gekko, you should be focusing on your driving." He admonished.

"Oh, right. Sorry." he replied sheepishly as he turned his gaze back towards the road. Just before they reached HQ, Catboy turned to Owlette.

"Thank you." he said softly.

"For what?" his words and especially his tone felt very good, but also confused her.

"For being my source of inspiration, or should I say, my muse." with that, he turned to jump out of the vehicle which just parked in Gekko's baseroom, leaving behind a flabbergasted Owlette, not noticing a huge blush on her face.

* * *

"What do you mean you lost them" asked an enraged Night Ninja from his covering minions. This couldn't happen. He didn't plan on the PJ Masks getting away. "Get out there and find them! They cannot win this time! Some wimps in animal pajamas cannot be better than me!" he roared and the ninjalinos immediatley spread out to carry out his orders.

"This guy is lucky I'm only seven and don't know any real curse words." Catboy muttered to himself as he observed the villains from above. The ninjas brought their stolen painting into the old, abandoned warehouse down the docks, which was where the heroes first tried to reclaim it, just before they got ambushed. Catboy thought it was odd that Night Ninja sent his minions out to look for them, instead of preparing another ambush here when they fully knew the heroes would come back for the artwork. That's what he would have done. But he was satisfied at this turn of evemts. The villain just made their job easeir.

Catboy reached to his ear to activate his communicator. "Everybody in position?"he asked.

"Camouflaged and ready for action." Gekko reported from on of the corners of the warehoue. The boy was just outside and waiting for the signal.

"Owlette?"

"Just give me the signal and I'll be there." she reassured him. She was around the docks, flying the Owl Glider at a distance that made sure she won't be spotted.

"Good. Be careful, if they see you, the whole plan goes down the drain." on the other end of the line, Owlette rolled her eyes.

"I am so touched by your genuine concern over my well-being, but don't worry. I have practiced this countless times before. I can do it." Catboy could tell that the girl was annoyed that he was more concerend about her messing up than her safety.

"I'm sorry, Owlette. I know I don't have to worry your well-being. You're the best flyer I've ever known. But if we make even the smallest mistake the mission will be a failure and as the team's leader, it will all be on my head. Please just try to understand, that's a huge pressure for me." he heard the girl sigh on the other end.

"Yeah, I know, sorry. I just hate it when you put your responsibilities as team leader in front of our friendship. I know that sounds selfish, but I can't help it." she replied sadly, which made Connor's chest ache. He always hated to hurt a friend, he felt even worse if it was Amaya. He was about to reply, when Gekko cut him off.

"Guys, I'll set you up a date where you can talk it out when we're done, but for now can we pleae focus on the mission?" this made both of them blush in embarrassment. Catboy snapped out of it first.

"Right, sorry. Catboy out." he replied before switching his communicator off. Focusing his attention back to the task at hand, he was surprised to see only two Ninjalinos in the room. They were standing guard in front of the painting, which was hung up on a wall. The only other person in the room was Night Ninja who was impaitently pacing up and down in the room, mumbling to himself about something inaudible. Catboy raised an eyebrow. This looked almost too easy. He was not going to make the same mistake twice.

„Gekko, check the outside of the whole warehouse tell me if there are any other Ninjalinos around." he instructed throught the communicator.

„I'm way ahead of you. I've been circling around this building for a few minutes and there's no one out here." came the reply.

„Alright then, here I go. Be ready." he said as he signed out. He snuck up right above the small ninja minions and observed the scene to find something he can use to his advantage. Finding nothing, he decided on a more direct approach. He dropped down behind the two ninjas, who didn't even hear him and knocked their heads together. As they dropped to the ground, Catboy picked up the painting and turned to leave, only to run straight into Night Ninja.

„How did you get in here?!" he demanded. Catboy just smiled at him.

„Oh, the vent." he told him matter of factly. He knew this would end up angering him even more and frankly, that was exactly why he did it. „Can you believe they still make them big enough for a human to crawl through them? Then again, they probably didn't expect a superpowered kid when they designed it. Oh, well."

At this point, the evil ninja kid was boiling mad. He launched himself at the feline themed superhero, who threw the painting into the air and dropped himself down on his back. He then extended both of hís legs and Night Ninja ended up landing with Catboy's legs sticking into his stomach. Catboy then used his strength to launch the villain against the wall, right where the painting was hanging just moments earlier. He then sprung back on his feet and caught tha painting in his hands and made a run for it.

Despite his Super Cat Speed he could hear Night Ninja getting up and angrily screaming into his walkie talkie, ordering his ninjalinos to return. He smirked to himself. He saw that he had made it out of the warehouse far enough, now was the time. He stopped to look behind himself to see Night Ninja along with over fifteen of his minions charging at him. He smirked as he took off into the direction where the heroes have their trap waiting just for the villain. Catboy reached up to his communicator.

"Owlette, I'm almost there, be ready for..." but before he could finish that sentence, he felt an extremely sharp pain in his ankle and he found himself falling forward and dropping the painting.painting. He looked up in horror, expecting the artifact to meet it's end on the the pavement, but before it began to fall, Night Ninja jumped and caught it in the air. Catboy almost sighed in relief as he saw that. Night Ninja may be a villain, but he just saved an invaluable piece of art from destruction. If course, said piece of art wouldn't have been in the danger of destruction if he didn't steal it.

Catboy looked back to see what tripped him, only to see Gekko materialize next to him.

"Gekko! What are you doing here?!" he asked on a tone that was a mix between angry, confused and frustrated. Gekko looked at him sheepishly.

"I..." he started while looking down, he was too ashamed to face him. "I wanted to sneak in and take out the ninjalinos one by one, so you could focus only Night Ninja and I didn't see you coming." he finished, rubbing his arm in embarrassment.

"Gekko! The plan was that you wait for me at the place we agreed on once I get the painting." Catboy snapped, unable to keep his frustration in check.

"I know, sorry." the lizard themed hero apologized, still not looking up at him. Catboy just rolled his eyes and tried to stand up, only to hiss in pain as he stood on the feet he ran into Gekko with. Gekko looked at his friend in concern and went to help him, only for him to hold up his arm in front of him.

"Don't. You've already helped enough." he said as he reached up to his communicator. "Owlette, return to the ground. The plan has failed, we'll have to find out something else." However, the response was not at all what he expected.

"No." Both boys jumped in surprise upon hearing this.

"What do you mean "no"?" Catboy asked in shock.

"I still have Night Ninja in my sight. I can still do this." the girl in red objected.

"What is she talking about?" Catboy asked looking Gekko, who could only shrug. He looked around and saw the edge of a tall building which he guessed was high enough to see the Owl Glider's situation from.

"Super Cat Jump!" he exclaimed as he jumped into the air and grabbed the ledge of the building's roof to slowly pull himself up. He couldn't jump straight on it due to his injured foot. While Catboy didn't have Owl Eyes, he managed to spot the vehicle flying towards the same dockside warehouse where he just took the painting from. But there was something off. He also spotted Night Ninja, alone, running circles around the building, only stopping when he saw that he was in cover from the Owl Glider's view. Catboy knew right away that he was up to something and when he saw him peek around the corner of the warehouse, he also knew what was it.

"Aw, shoot." Catboy panicked upon realizing what was going on. "He knows we're onto him. He's going to lure in Owlette to crash!" he reached up to his communicator again. "Owlette, get back, now!"

"No! I can do this!" Owlette argued as she flew closer to the warehouse, still unaware that Night Ninja was aware of her. Catboy grew angry.

"I said, get back! Now!" he yelled. But then Owlette did something that he couldn't believe. She turned off her communicator, shutting him off. "Owlette?!" he tried again. He just couldn't believe she would ignore him like that. He growled angrily as he took his communicator off of his head and threw it to the ground. He then saw Gekko also made it to the roof.

"Help me up to the Owl Glider!" he ordered, gripping the other boy's shoulders tightly, hoping that this time, he would emphasize his order enough for Gekko to follow it.

"But... But your leg." Gekko objected in shock, but he didn't get to finish.

"NOW!" he shouted straight into his face, which broke Gekko's resistance. He laid down on the ground and activated his Super Gekko Muscles, Catboy the jumped up to use his Super Cat Jump and landed on Gekko's feet who gave him a push. This was a move they practiced several times before. Catboy could reach even higher places with it than by himself. And he needed the extra boost this time, because otherwise he wouldn't have made it onto the Owl Glider's wing. He then used all his might to crawl up to the driver's cabin and knocked on it's window. Owlette almost didn't notice at first as she was busy closing in on Night Ninja, but eventually she did heat him and had to turn her attention away to let him in. The boy climbed into the vehicle and tried to grab the control wheel, but Owlette stopped him.

"What are you doing?" she asked, baffled by his actions.

"Saving you from crashing into the ground!" he yelled back. "He has spotted you! He's luring YOU into a trap!"

"What?!" She exclaimed as she looked back at the villain who has now jumped up to the top of the warehouse, jumped into the air and there several stick splats at the plane. None of them missed. They all landed on the window and completely blocked the sight.

"Fluttering Feathers!" Owlette yelled as she grabbed the controls to steer her vehicle away, but it was too late. Catboy knew and he quickly pressed the catapult button on the control panel and the driver seat with Owlette flew out and parachuted safely on to the ground.

Catboy on the other hand, wasn't so lucky. He grabbed the steering wheel and tried to pull up the glider before crashing, and while he did manage to avoid the building, he couldn't avoid the crash. The Owl Glider has plummeted into the ground, leaving a long trail in the pavement before coming to a stop.

"CATBOY!" Owlette screamed as she undid her seatbelts and went to check on him, along with Gekko who had just arrived on the scene. They looked into the glider to see how he was and gasped in horror of what they saw. Inside, they found him lying right under the control panel with a huge wound on his head, most likely from headbutting the steering wheel from the impact, and one of his hands and legs was also out of place. Thankfully, the boy was conscious, but the voices he made let the other two know that he was in great pain.

"Get him out of there!" Owlette screamed at Gekko who reached inside to do as he was told.

"DON'T TOUCH ME!" Catboy shouted as Gekko's hands reached him. Every part of his body felt like it was on fire and being touched certainly didn't help. But neither did screaming, the massive shout caused a great pain inside his chest. He couldn't bear it. He could only lie there and cry from the intense pain. It broke the other two hero's heart.

Eventually, Owlette decided to get him out herself, and while he did flinch when she touched him, the pain was so severe in his whole body that he couldn't focus on her touch. Owlette picked him up very softly and told Gekko to pull the Owl Glider out of the ground. A crash like this would have damaged an ordinary aircraft beyond repair, the the Owl Glider was no ordinary vehicle. It was badly damaged, but still functional, so they won't have to worry about getting back to HQ.

What they did have to worry about was Catboy's condition and the fact that for the first time in the history of the PJ Masks, they failed to save the day during the night.

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TBC... Review please! Thanks  :)


	2. Damage Control

Chapter 2: Damage Control

It was well past midnight by the time when the Owl Glider reached HQ. Owlette had to fly very slowly due to Catboy's severe injuries and it took them a while to get him into the vehicle without hurting him. Catboy hasn't said a word ever since they took off from the docks and the other two heroes found this silence so agonizing that they wished he would be yelling at them in fury instead, at least then they'd knew he was getting better.

And they knew he was furious. On occasions, Gekko peaked over at him and saw him barely being able to conceal his anger. Then again, maybe it was just the fact that his injuries hurt so much that if he moved around, screaming at them, it would only make it worse.

As the vehicle landed at the top floor of HQ, the heroes saw their ever so faithful companion, PJ Robot waiting for them as usual. The small machine mostly tended to the headquarters instead of tagging along on missions, carrying out tasks like repairs and maintenance. As the Masks got out of the Owl Glider, they immediately noticed his expression turning to one of shock. Catboy wandered if it was because it saw him in his current state or because it realized how much work it'll have to get the Glider back in top shape.

Owlette flew out of her vehicle and landed next to the robot, informing, quickly informing him of what happened and instructing it to get the main room of HQ ready for Catboy's medical treatment. The robot left to carry out the orders and Owlette turned to see Gekko carefully picking up their injured leader and carrying him towards the elevator. She found this sight so unbearable that she decided she'd rather join PJ Robot in the main room.

'Figures.' Catboy thought to himself bitterly as he saw her disappear in the elevator. She probably couldn't bring herself to look him in the eye after what happened. And if anything, that was one thing that he didn't blame her for that night.

Gekko looked down at him to see his bitter frown. "Catboy, are you okay?" he asked. The feline themed hero looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Take a wild guess." he said cynically. "In case you haven't noticed, you had to drag me all the way to the Owl Glider and now you're carrying me downstairs, because I can barely move. I feel fantastic, Gekko. Never better, thank you for asking. In fact, I hope you'll have a similarly wonderful experience in the near future!" Gekko slightly narrowed his eyes at his friend. He knew they messed up and that put Catboy into this situation, but he thought he was going a little too far. But he decided to ignore his tone for now.

"That's not what I meant and you know it." he said in a lecturing way. "I saw the way you looked at Owlette just now. Don't you think this is hard enough on her already?" Catboy cast his eyes down. He realized his friend had a point. But in his current state, he couldn't bring himself to listen to reason. He couldn't bring himself to focus on anything except how he was feeling right now. In the end, he just decided to ignore Gekko for now.

"Just get me to the central room." he said coldly, which made Gekko stop in shock. He never heard Catboy talk like that before. Even when he got a little bossy like during Romeo's attack with the remote controls or too rough like during the "butterfly brigade" incident, he was still trying to bring out the best from the situation. But now he looked utterly lost and defeated and this got Gekko worried. Catboy eventually got tired of him just standing there.

"I said get me to the central room! Now!" he said with a raised voice, which he immediately regretted as it caused him to hiss in pain. Gekko opened his mouth to ask if he's alright, but he beat him to it. "I'm fine. Now go!" he said on a tone that made it clear wasn't in the mood for an argument. "And don't you start lecturing me, Gekko! This is on you just as much as on Owlette."

Gekko sighed. It was clear his friend won't listen to reason at the moment, so there was no point in trying. He resumed to carry him to the elevator which took them to the middle level of HQ.

Owlette was already there, having helped PJ Robot set a medical bed for Connor's examination and treatment in the center of the room. When the two boys arrived, Gekko carried Catboy to the bed and put him down on it carefully not to cause him more pain. Immediately, PJ Robot and Owlette set up a screen next to the bed to do an x-ray on him. Gekko saw that Connor can barely keep his eyes open from the pain.

"Hey." he tried reassuringly. "They're doing an x-ray on you so try not to move around too much." he told him jokingly, trying to lighten the mood. That didn't work as intended as Connor shot him a dark glare, letting him know that he really wasn't in the mood. Gekko seemed to understand this as he shrunk back from the look Connor was giving him and he noticed from the corner of his eyes that Owlette had a similar expression on her face. With another attempt at reaching out to Catboy failed, he decided that it would be the best if he left him alone for now.

The x-ray was completed quickly and Owlette's fears were confirmed. The boy didn't escape the ordeal without some serious injuries. "You have two broken and three bruised ribs, a twisted right ankle and a broken left wrist." she reported to Catboy once she had the results in her hand. "Also, there are some fractures on the..." she gulped at this point, she almost couldn't stomach what she was about to say. "...on the skull."

"That explains why my head feels like it's been ripped open." Catboy muttered, mostly to himself. "How much time until full recovery?" Owlette flinched before answering. His tone was still cold as steel.

"Thanks to our powers, we regenerate faster than normal people, but it will still take several weeks. Three at least. And PJ Robot will have to do some... fixing too." she couldn't find a better word for it. This sent shivers through Connor's entire body.

"Sur... Surgery?" Catboy asked, a little frightened, which was understandable. Owlette thought she will cry right there. To see him so broken and afraid was heartbreaking. Especially knowing that it was her fault.

"Just to the head." she said after a few seconds of silence. "The broken parts can be fixed without it and the bruises will heal on their own." Connor just laid there in silence. Just when he thought this night couldn't get any worse.

"Cat... Connor?" Owlette called out. Connor still didn't speak but both of the others could see he was struggling to come to terms with it.

"Do it." he said quietly. Almost whispering. Owlette's eyes widened.

"Ri... Right now? Are you sure?"

"Just do it." he muttered through his teeth. The faster they were done with it the better. Owlette was still in shock, but nevertheless complied. She nodded at PJ Robot, who took it as a signal to begin. The small machine floated up to Catboy and and extended a needle from one of it's fingers to give Connor a sedative before beginning. Knowing that the process will be long, Owlette and Gekko decided to leave for the time being. They had a lot to think about.

* * *

"Hey, you're okay?" Gekko asked Owlette once the two of them were alone in her baseroom. Owlette was merely staring ahead of herself, still under the effects of the night's events.

"Gekko..." she said once she found her voice again. "I think you really should stop asking that. Nobody is okay." she lamented sorrowfully. Gekko knew she was right, but je didn't know what else to say they've been alone for like twenty minutes and none of them said a word. They were both worried about Connor, but Gekko felt like he needed something to take his mind off of it or else he might go crazy.

"Do you think maybe we should... go and find Night Ninja?" he suggested. Owlette looked at him in confusion.

"What?"

"Well, think about it. He thinks he has won and he wouldn't expect us to attack again tonight. We could take him by surprise and get the painting back." Owlette knew what he was trying to do. He wanted to distract his thoughts from Catboy's situation. She couldn't blame him and she would've liked to do the same, but she quickly had to realize that Gekko's idea was foolish.

"No." she shook her head. "We have no leads on him and you saw how easily he lured us into a trap earlier. Without Catboy, we wouldn't stand a chance." Gekko realized that she was right and looked down. Owlette saw the effect that this entire ordeal was having on him and she felt even worse because of it. She knew that she couldn't help Catboy right now, but maybe she could help Gekko feel better. "If you want to distract your thoughts so badly, help me fix the Owl Glider." she suggested. Gekko looked at the severely damaged vehicle. Fixing them was usually PJ Robot's job, but since he was now busy with Connor, they might as well.

"Okay." he replied as the two heroes went to do the damage assessment.

* * *

Catboy felt awful. That wasn't too surprising given his current situation, but that wasn't what he was feeling right now. Well, maybe that also had something to do with it, but his physical pain paled in comparison of how he was feeling emotionally.

'It must be the sedatives.' he thought jokingly. Even in this grim hour, he found time for humor. Which was ironic, since he snapped at Gekko earlier for joking about his condition. That made him feel guilty. But really, didn't he have a right to be upset? It was their fault he ended up like this in the first place. But then again, he remembered what he told Owlette earlier. He was the team leader. Everything was his responsibility. So did that mean he had only himself to blame for this whole thing? He didn't think about that so far.

"Of course you didn't." he heard a voice speaking suddenly, which almost made him jump. "It's always easier to pin the blame on others." his eyes shot open and he noticed that he was not lying on the operating table, but in the middle of a dark area. There was nothing in sight. The boy looked around as he stood up and he noticed that he wasn't in his Catboy suit but his normal daytime clothing. As he finished wondering about when did he detransform, he looked up to see Gekko standing in front of him.

"Gekko?" he asked. The green cladded boy stood before him with a rather distasteful expression on his face.

"Remember when Owlette said she can handle it on her own? Maybe if you gave her a chance she could have pulled it off." he said reaproachingly. "And maybe then you wouldn't have ended up like this." Connor didn't know how to respond. He was still trying to comprehend what was going on around him.

"N... No." he said eventually. He was a little nervous about this whole bizarre situation, but somehow, he found his confidence. "The plan has failed and we all knew it. And because of YOU I might add. If she did it, she would have ended up like me." he defended himself, but it came out pretty uncertain.

"Wow, do you also have fortune telling powers now?" came another mocking voice which Connor quickly recognized as Owlette's. He turned away from Gekko to see his other partner with her arms crossed, giving him the same resentful look as Gekko. "You know, i thought that after Romeo's remote control incident, you have learned what it takes to be a good leader. But it looks like I was wrong. Your still a control freak and look where that got you."

"That's on you and you know it!" Connor snapped at her, to which she only scoffed.

"Excuse me, "if we make even the smallest mistake the mission will be a failure and as the team's leader, it will all be on my head", weren't those your exact words?" she asked. Connor hung his head down at hearing this.

"Nothing to say, huh?" spoke Gekko. "Perhaps you really aren't suited to lead the PJ Masks after all." Despite his doubts, Connor managed to shoot him an angry glare.

"Who are you to judge?!" he yelled. Gekko merely shrugged.

"Oh, I don't know. A hero who just failed his mission for the first time thanks to you?" he asked cynically.

"SHUT UP!" Connor yelled as he took his head between his hands and collapsed on his knees, sobbing. "Just... shut... up."

"And now you're crying." Owlette scoffed with bitter laugh. "You really are pathetic."

"And you call yourself a hero?" Gekko added as he walked up next to Owlette. "You don't deserve that costume."

Connor couldn't bare himself to look up to them. He didn't know if it was because he thought what they're saying is true or bother the physical and emotional pain that still tormented him, but he simply couldn't do anything but kneel there, grasping his head and cry.

But suddenly, he heard a strange, whooshing sound and heard his friends gasping in surprise. He looked up and he could barely believe what he saw. Owlette and Gekko were now sitting on the ground in front of him, wrapped up in the super cat stripes.

"What's going on?" Owlette asked, panicked. Before any of them could say or do anything, the glowing stripes pulled Owlette and Gekko back into the darkness. Connor stood up and stepped back. What was going on here? Before he knew it, he heard footsteps and he soon saw the silhouette of a figure take shape in the darkness. It looked familiar, but Connor's eyes were still blurry from the tears to tell who it was. But eventually the figure did become clear.

Connor's eyes widened in shock as he saw a boy walking up to him, wearing the Catboy suit, but with some noticeable changes. First of all, the mask covered his whole face and even his eyes weren't visible due to a pair of glowing blue lens. The blue suit had some red stripes and spots all around it. As Connor looked at them more closely, he noticed how they resembled bleeding wounds. Also the right ear looked like it had been ripped off and the suit on the boy didn't have a tail. This definitely wasn't your typical house cat appearance. It looked more like a stray cat who got in a fight with a wild dog. Or maybe two. Connor was slightly alarmed by his presence.

"Who... Who are you?" he stuttered. The figure said nothing at first. It was like he was observing him. Connor then felt the figure's gaze burn into his eyes. Something about this boy just screamed danger.

"I'm Catboy." he replied eventually. Connor raised his eyebrow.

"No. That can't be right. You're not Catboy. I am." he said after a few seconds of silence. The figure once again stayed quiet for a while. This time Connor felt like he was thinking over what he just said.

"Hmph. I guess you have a point. I am not Catboy. At least not the way you know." Connor was completely lost at this point.

"What are you talking about? And... And what is this place?" he asked, looking around.

"This..." the figure said, gesturing around themselves. "... is the deepest part of your consciousness. Or should I say our consciousness." Connor raised an eyebrow.

"So... you are me?" he asked. The figure just hummed upon hearing that.

"I guess you could say that. This is the part of your mind where you banish your darkest thoughts to. You are the embodiment of your greatest fear. Your fear of having failed as the leader of the PJ Masks. I am the embodiment of the anger you're feeling right now. The anger towards Owlette and Gekko for what happened tonight." he explained. Connor examined him again. He wasn't sure what to think of him.

"For an embodiment of anger, you're pretty calm." was the only thing he could say. The figure shrugged.

"I suppose. But I could say the Samesame about you for an embodiment of fear." he said simply. The two of them stood in awkward silence for a while. Connor was still trying to make sense of this whole situation. Here he was in the deepest part of his mind speaking to the embodiment of his anger as his body was lying on an operating table. 'Man, I'm only seven. I'm way too young for this stuff.' he thought.

"So what's going to happen now?" he asked. The figure once again thought for a while before answering.

"Like I said, this is where you banish your darkest thoughts to. You do your best to repress the feelings we represent, but the fact that we've met means you are losing that battle." Connor didn't like the sound of that.

"What does that mean exactly?"

"That we are about to break free. You will soon wake up and you will have a lot of questions to ask yourself."

"Such as?" And even though the figure's face was covered by the mask, Connor could tell he was smirking.

"You'll know. After all..." the figure then walked up right next to Connor and leaned next to his ear. "... you're me." Connor was a little scared by the way he said that last part. He opened his mouth to ask more questions, but then the place they were standing in started to lighten up ever so slightly.

"What's this?" he asked, slightly startled. The figure in front of him remained calm.

"It seems PJ Robot is done putting you back together. You're waking up." he informed Connor. Soon the light became brighter and brighter and he began to disappear. He had no time to react to that because the figure spoke again. "Think about what I told you. And remember, no matter what choices do you make from now on, nothing will ever be the same again." Before Connor could even question what this meant the light consumed him completely and he disappeared.

"A critical moment approaches." the figure remarked before the light consumed him as well.

* * *

TBC. Review please! Thanks! :)


	3. Changes

Here's the next chapter. I hope you'll like it.

I would like to thank everyone who read favorited and followed so far Maybe you could also leave a review next time? That would be great. Thanks!

As for Catlette4ever, patience is a virtue and how do you expect me to answer to you when you don't have an account?

Chapter 3: Changes

* * *

Catboy still felt the severe stinging pain in his head when he came to. A combination of his skull injuries and the surgery carried out by PJ Robot to fix whatever damage he could, no doubt. The first action he took after the last bit of his drowsiness was gone was to put his non casted right hand, which miraculously didn't get injured in the crash on his head in a feeble attempt to ease the pain, only to hiss in pain when it came in contact with the surgical scars. Apparently, they were still rather sore.

He tried again, attempting to be slower and softer, but not to ease the pain, but because he felt something on his head, which was certainly not his mask. He pulled his hand across the unfamiliar matter, as slightly as he could to avoid hurting his head again. From what he could determine, those were probably the bandages the machine used on his wounds after it finished fixing his skull. He could feel that there were quite a few layers of them wrapped around his head. It made him wonder just how bad his injuries really were.

As he laid his arm back on the table, he found himself wondering about the strange dream he had during his anesthesia. He has never had an experience like this, and as he ran it through his head again and again, he found himself wondering wether it really was a dream. It was way too intense. More intense than any dream he's ever had before. More intense than the worst nightmare of his life. So intense in fact that he was almost considerng the possibilty of it being more than just a dream. Could it be possible that it was really happening inside his mind as he was sleeping?

Connor shuddered at the thought. Or at least he would have if his body would have allowed it without pain. He really hoped that it wasn't the case. The other presence he felt during this dream or whatever it was was just cold, menacing and not at all welcoming. Connor really didn't want to encounter him again. After some brainstorming, he decided to just shrug it off as a side effect of the sedatives PJ Robot has used on him. It may have been an ignorant conclusion, but Connor needed an explanation to calm himself down with. He has had enough to worry about without bad dreams anyway. 'Yeah, it must have been the sedatives' he thought, and with that he considered the case closed.

He was so deep into his thoughts that he didn't even hear PJ Robot reentering the room. It has been helping the other two heroes with fixing the Owl Glider after finishing Connor's surgery and leaving him to rest. Upon seeing that it's patient was awake, it floated right up to the bed to check on him.

"Hey." Connor tried weakly, slowly moving his head to the right to face the machine. Seeing the robot's quizzical expression, he quickly realized it must be curious about how he was feeling. "I've been better, but I'll live. Thanks for fixing me up, buddy." he said with a warm smile, making PJ Robot change his questioning look back to his usual happy face. "By the way, where are the others?" The robot's face changed to concerned as it raised one of it's arms to point towards the elevator. It took Connor a few seconds to turn to look where it was pointing at, but he quickly realized what it was trying to say.

"They're fixing the Owl Glider." Connor noted, making PJ Robot slightly bob forward, which he interpreted as a nod. Connor didn't want to admit it, but he felt a little hurt by this. He would have expected that his friends would be a little more concerned about his state than the vehicle's.

'Especially since they're the cause of my current state.' Connor's eyes widened as this thought popped out of his head. Where did that come from? But he couldn't dwell on it for long, since he's heard PJ Robot floating away from him, towards the elevators and went up to Owlette's base room to tell his comrades that he had woken up. Or at least that's what he assumed. Even when he heard it, he could never tell what the robot is blabbering about.

Sure enough, about half a minute later, PJ Robot returned, accompanied by the other two heroes. Immediately, they ran up to him to see how he was doing. Considering that it was only his head that was bandaged up and there was just a cast on his broken left wrist, his condition must have been much improved. Connor turned his head to look at them, expecting to be bombarded with questions about his condition, and that was what the others have intended to do, but upon meeting the blue clothed boy's gaze, they found themselves unable to speak.

For some reason, Owlette and Gekko felt very uncomfortable when they made eye contact with Catboy. Something about him felt... different. And they wouldn't say that in a good way. Catboy saw how they reacted when he looked at them, but he wasn't sure what to think of it. He didn't know if they were speechless because they still felt guilty over what happened and were too ashamed to speak up or if they were just looking for the right words. Apparently, it was the latter, because after a few moments of awkward silence, Owlette finally spoke.

"Hey." she said simply, attempting to break the ice, but she wasn't doing a very good job.

"Hey." Catboy replied on a slightly gruff tone. For some reason, the sight of his two best friends did nothing to brighten his sour mood. He wasn't angry, he wasn't afraid or sad looking at them. He felt nothing. Gekko spoke up next, deciding to save Owlette from struggling over her words.

"About time you woke up. For a moment, we thought you were going Sleeping Beauty on us." he attempted to lighten the mood, just like before. This time however, instead of a glare from Catboy, he earned a punch into the arm from Owlette. Catboy on the other hand, didn't react to his poor attempt at humor, because something Gekko just said caught his attention more.

"About time?" he asked suspiciously, causing Gekko to gasp, as if realizing he just said something he shouldn't have. "How long have I been out?" The other two gazed at each other nervously. They weren't planning to tell him this right at the moment he woke up, they thought it would be a little too big of a shock. But it seems now that thanks to Gekko's slip of tongue, they'll have to.

"Good going, Gekko." Owlette said sarcastically, to which the green costumed boy could only mouth 'sorry'. Owlette than turned to Catboy and not knowing how best to bring it up, she decided to just be blunt.

"Three days." she told him. Connor's eyes widened. He was so shocked that he completely forgot about his injuries and tried to launch himself off of the operating table right at his friends.

"WHAT?!" Needless to say, he immediately regretted it as reality dawned upon him and burning pain burst into his chest, serving as a harsh reminder of his broken ribs. He yelled in pain as Owlette and Gekko rushed to push him back to the table. They both have been so startled by his sudden outburst that for a moment, they thought PJ Robot will have to give him another dose of sedative, but they soon realized that the pain alone will be enough to hold him down.

Once they put him back to his lying position and the pain started to abate, he finally got his head straight and turned back to his colleagues to ask them the most obvious question.

"My parents..." he tried only to hiss in pain again. It still hasn't completely left his body. Owlette knew what he was about to say and answered for him.

"Yeah. This is gonna be difficult to explain to them. They've been asking us about you during the past three days and we said we don't know anything about where are you now. They're worried sick, Connor." Connor shot her a look that clearly said 'Tell me something I don't know.

"Thanks for the update, but I could have guessed that myself." he grumbled. Owlette looked down sheepishly for a moment.

"Anyway, me and Gekko were thinking maybe we should tell them a nighttime villian abducted you." she suggested. Catboy thought that one over. Given the current circumstances, perhaps that really was the best solution. He was about to give Owlette his opinion on the idea, but Gekko beat him to it.

"And then, after you're fully healed, we could take you home and tell them the PJ Masks saved you!" he exclaimed with a grin, striking a heroic pose. Owlette rolled her eyes at the boy's antics before continuing.

"Yes, thank you, Gekko." she said sarcastically. "But yeah, that is basically our idea."

Before Gekko's interruption, Connor was thinking it over. After all, he had no better idea. But the way Gekko spoke up now caused him to see this plan in a way that he wasn't sure he was supposed to. He realized that maybe he shouldn't, but he gave in to the suddenly rising anger in his chest as he shot a dirty look towards the other two heroes. The grin immediately faded from Gekko's face and was replaced by a look of worry, which Owlette soon found herself sharing with him.

"You want to use my situation to boost your egos?!" he pretty much snarled at them. They both took a step back and were shocked to realize that they found themselves scared of the broken boy in blue lying in front of them. It was a feeling neither of them could explain.

Owlette was lost in a hurricane of emotions. She was scared because Connor acted like this, she was confused why Connor acted like this, she was heqrtbroken to see him like this, but most of all, she was desperate to help him, so she took a step forward and looked him in the eye. No matter how hard it was.

"No! We would never do something like that!" she tried to reassure him, apparently without success, because Connor's expression stayed the same, although, his glare softened slightly.

"Well, Gekko could have fooled me." he said with venom still dripping from his voice. The green clad boy in question frowned in confusion.

"Hey! Do you have a better idea?" Gekko challenged. It was obvious that he didn't understand what made Catboy mad. Owlette noticed this and since the question he just asked did nothing to resolve the tension between the trio, she decided it would be better to send Gekko away before he said anything else that would anger Catboy more.

"Gekko, I think you should go." she told him softly, though there was a certain firmness in her voice that made it clear this wasn't a request.

"What?" Gekko asked with widened eyes. "But..." he tried to argue, but Owlette gave him a look that left no room for contradiction. While obviously not happy about it, he eventually complied and headed for the elevator which took him down to his baseroom.

With only the two of them left, Owlette turned back to her injured teammate, who, while not as viciously as moments ago, but was still glaring at her. The girl quickly realized that his 3 days long nap did nothing to erase the bitterness Catboy felt over the events of the last mission. And their previous conversation did little to help either.

"Listen, Connor. About before..." she tried to explain herself, but he didn't let her finish.

"I don't want to hear it, Owlette." he growled back at her sharply. The girl in red felt her eyes getting wet at the way he talked to her. There was absolutely no forgiveness or understanding in them.

"Please." she almost cried. "I just want to..."

"I said I don't want to hear it!" Catboy tried to raise his voice, only to realize that it just hurts him more. So he continued on a low voice that was still rather forceful. "I told you to stand down! But you didn't listen! What's more, you completely ignored me and the only reason you're not lying here instead of me is because I got you out of there!" Yes, she remembered. In the last minute, he catapulted her out of the descending Owl Glider before she crashed into the warehouse and injured herself just as bad, or possibly even worse than Catboy. Even during such a bad situation, he put her before himself. It made Owlette feel awful. She opened her mouth to say something, Catboy wasn't done yet.

"Don't say anything! It was my duty! A leader is responsible for his followers, so in the end, I think I'd rather live with these injuries than knowing I let the same happen to you." he surprised both Owlette and himself with how soft his voice got when he said that. His expression and voice grew sorrowful as he cast his eyes down for a few moments. Owlette decided to take advantage of his sudden change of mood and tried to reach out to him again.

"Connor, I..."

"Don't!" he interrupted again, with his voice and expression returning to their former anger. "Tell me one thing, Owlette! How am I supposed to trust you after this? Or Gekko for that matter?" This question did raise a solid point to think about. Owlette didn't know how she was gonna earn Catboy's back. And it was obvious he was not going to listen to her now, so she thought she should just leave him be for now.

"I'm sorry." was all she could say. Catboy only turned his gaze away from her and closed his eyes.

"Just go!" he ordered, making his red clad teammate hang her head in shame and turn to leave. He then added something that he really know he shouldn't, but his emotions got the better of him "I can't even look at you right now."

That stung. Right where it hurt the most. Out of every single thing he said, that was the most hurtful. Owlette entered the elevator that took her up to her baseroom. She didn't care that Gekko is waiting for her downstairs and he will want to hear what they talked about right now, she needed some time alone. By the time she reached the top floor, she had already let her tears lose.

* * *

The following weeks have passed just as planned. Well, at least for Connor. His recovery was going smoothly. During the first week after the accident, he tried to get back to his feet. Thankfully, since his ankle only got twisted in the crash, it healed pretty fast, during that three days when he was unconscious, actually. So by the end of the first week, he could stand without a problem, but walking still caused him problems due to his broken ribs. He could only walk around very slowly. Also, his head still stung sometimes and he still felt a little dizzy due to his skull injuries and the following surgeries' effects, but that was also getting better over time.

During the second week, he finally started to feel his chest getting better. It no longer hurt when he was breathing and walking has also become a lot easier. The pains in his head were also less and less frequent. By the end of the week, he asked PJ Robot for another x-ray and the results showed that his ribs have healed completely. Also, his broken wrist no longer needed a cast, though it still hurt a little. Catboy was quite happy with these results and suggested to the others the he went home at last, but Gekko and Owlette insisted that he stayed at HQ until his skull injuries have healed completely. The surgery to heal them has not been easy and it made him sleep for three days afterwards, so needless to say, they were his most worrying injuries. Catboy was annoyed by this. Even though they had a point, he just had a very troublesome experience because of Owlette and Gekko's "insistence", but he had to give in. He still wasn't in a condition to resist them. He also terribly missed his family and his home. He just wanted get out of his baseroom already, which has also served as his infirmary room for the past weeks.

Catboy felt his frustration grow from day to day. For two weeks, he barely left this bed and spent most of his time lying and doing nothing. Of course, he was recovering from severe injuries, but it was still driving him mad. So in the third week, whenever the other two heroes were out patroling or during the daytime when they were away, he spent most of his time exercising. He wanted to be back in action as soon as possible and he felt like he was well enough to do it. Even PJ Robot's checkups have confirmed that.

However, one day, he had a particularly bold request for the machine.

"Get the simulator ready!" he ordered, full of confidence and determination. The robot's expression immediately turned into one of concern.

"What? It's been three weeks already. I'm fine. You saw it too." he said but the robot still wasn't convinced. It tried to push him back towards the bed, but it's got the opposite reaction it was expecting. Catboy has had enough. His frustration has finally reached it's breaking point. He forcefully pushed the robot away and firmly glare at him.

"I said get the simulator ready. Now!" he hissed. The robot backed away in shock. Catboy has never acted like this before. Ever since he woke up two and a half weeks ago, he has shown some serious changes in his behavior. The biggest one was that he acted way more aggressively than ever before. The other heroes may not have noticed it, but they haven't been around him as much as the robot. Owlette and Gekko felt his anger when he woke up, but they brushed it off as the accident still being a fresh and sore memory and just assumed he'll get over it. But he still haven't. According to PJ Robot's scans, his anger was just as high as back then. It didn't like it.

Regardless, the robot had no choice but to comply. It floated to the center of Catboy's baseroom and activated the dome that appeared every time the heroes used the HQ's main computer. Catboy walked inside and after a quick warmup, he signaled to the robot to begin. PJ Robot pressed a switch on the control panel and around Catboy, six white egg shaped objects emerged from the floor. The objects grew black mechanical limbs and their tops opened to reveal black screens with two large glowing orbs that resembled eyes. These were the PJ Drones. The Masks have designed them in the shape of their new robotic ally, but unlike it, they merely possessed virtual intelligence and were heavily restricted by their strict programming. They were mostly used for training - mainly combat practice - and security purposes. They were quite effective as the heroes didn't have a breach in the HQ ever since they were active.

Catboy cracked his fists and assumed a fighting stance. "Let's go..."

The six drones started to circle around him in unusion. He didn't immediately attack. He always preferred it when his opponents made the first move, so he had the time to analyse their move and make the perfect counter attack. Super Cat Speed may not have been as effective in a fight as Gekko Muscles, but it had it's advantages.

At last, on of the drones charged at him. He didn't read much else from it's movements, so he simply sidestepped and left one of his legs there to trip it. Usually, that would have been it, but now, he felt like that wasn't enough. Something inside him convinced him to go on. He raised his leg and stomped through the drone's head, effectively shutting it down for good.

He then heard through his Cat Ears that another pair of metal legs was coming towards him. Without even looking up, he waited for the right moment and swept the machine's legs from under it, causing it to fall. From the corner of his eyes, he saw another one heading towards him and this one had more planned than just charging, as Catboy saw it raising a fist. He then grabbed the drone he just tripped and lifted it up to use it as a shield. The attacking drone's fist ended up punching a hole right through it's fellow drone. Catboy then grabbed the fist of the machine with one hand and it's forearm with the other and used all of his strength to tear it off. He then took the dismembered arm and jammed it right into the third drone's head. Three down, three to go.

The fourth one took him by surprise and grabbed him from behind by wrapping it's arms around him. Catboy struggled to get free, but the metal grip of the drone was too strong. Gekko would usually help him out in this situation, but he wasn't here to help him now. Not sure if it would do any good either. He didn't have super strength, so he had to use his speed and mind to outsmart his enemies. So, he used his Super Cat Stripes, wrapped it around the drone's legs and managed to pull them out from under it and make it fall on it's back. He got out of it's grasp, stood up and used the stripes that were still wrapped around it's legs to tear them off. He then grabbed the torn of legs and beat the drone with them until it completely stopped moving.

He was so riled up by this point that he didn't even wait for the last two drones to make their moves. He activated his Super Cat Speed and ran around them, wrapping them up in Super Cat Stripes. He then pulled on the stripes which tightened around the drones so much that they started to crack. The Super Cat Stripes were unbreakable and just as strong as the Super Gekko Muscles and they eventually crushed the last two drones. They fell to the floor and Catboy also fell to his knees, panting in exhaustion. Perhaps he pushed himself a little too hard, this was his first training simulation in weeks after all, but it was a refreshing experience.

He didn't feel this good in a long time. Ever since he woke up, this was the first time he could directly let out his frustration on something. Which he greatly needed. He didn't know what convinced him to fight more vehemently than before, but in the end, he decided not to dwell to much on it. It made him feel better. Then he heard a voice from behind him...

* * *

Greg and Amaya have just reached the PJ Masks HQ after their daytime obligations have ended. There wasn't any villain activity in the city lately, so they weren't in a hurry. They just wanted to check on Connor.

"Do you think we should take him home already?" Greg asked Amaya. As they have expected, Connor's long absence from home was the main topic between their families. He has already been reported at the police as a missing person. His parents also knew that he always hung out with them and have been asking them to try and look for him at places they often go to.

Greg and Amaya both felt terrible for knowing where their son was, but they couldn't tell them for obvious reasons. As if they didn't already have enough guilt to deal with. Amaya just sighed before answering.

"Well, he's mostly healed, except for his head and I really don't like the idea of letting him out with those injuries. He still feels his head sting or dizzy at times." Greg looked down, feeling uncertain.

"But couldn't he continue his recovery at home? Honestly I just want to end his parents' nightmare."

"And you think I don't?" she looked back at him with sorrow clear in her eyes. "But it's just too risky. HQ has the best equipment for treating him. Not to mention if we don't do everything like we planned, we might even get discovered as the PJ Masks."

"Well, it's not like our enemies don't already know, so what's the harm?" Greg replied. The kids have never brought up the possibility of revealing themselves to their families, but even if every nighttime villain knew who they were, the idea of their parents finding out was even worse. Amaya decided to end the argument.

"Let's just see how Connor is doing. We can decide if he's ready to leave or not afterwards." Greg noticed in his friend's tone that she didn't want to discuss this anymore, so he decided not to push it further.

They have entered HQ at the side entrance and both head for the elevators to head up to Catboy's room. But they weren't ready for what was awaiting them.

"Connor?!" they both exclaimed in shock upon seeing their friend in the middle of the room, surrounded by the destroyed PJ Drones.

Out of instinct and without thinking, Catboy jumped into the air, spun around and the next thing Amaya felt was being pinned against the ground by her throat and staring up at the feline themed hero in shock as he raised a fist to bring it towards his new target, only to notice who it was. For the first time since he woke up, he was taken back at what he was doing. The two of them stayed in that position for a few moments. Greg was too shocked to interfere. In the end, Catboy merely got off of her.

"Don't sneak up on me like that." he scoffed as he turned to walk away from them and changed back to Connor. After getting over the shock, Greg helped Amaya up.

"What are you doing?!" the blonde boy demanded.

"Just some training. I wanted to get back in shape." Connor replied without even looking back at them.

"You should be resting!" Amaya told him firmly.

"I've been resting enough." he replied simply. Amaya got Greg's hand off of her shoulder and walked up to him.

"And what if you haven't?! What if you worsen your injuries?!" Connor just rolled his eyes.

"My injuries are healed. It's time I get back on duty." he said as he picked up a towel to wipe the sweat off his forehead. Greg looked away from the bickering pair to look around him and see the demolished drones. It scared him a little. This wasn't how the PJ Masks trained. Normally they just defend themselves from the attacks, but these drones looked like they've been slaughtered.

"Is this what you consider practicing your hero duty?" he asked. Connor just looked back at him cynically.

"These drones are a dime a dozen. We use them for training. I trained. That's it." he shrugged. Amaya also looked around to see the mechanical massacre. It got her concerned too. This was not like Connor. Something was different about him, but at the moment she was more concerned about his well being.

"Get back to the bed." she told him. Connor stared back at her blankly. While he has had enough of lying in that bed, he didn't see the point of arguing with his teammates. Plus he could use a rest after his training session.

"Fine." he said with a frustrated sigh. He headed back to the bed and laid back, so PJ Robot and Amaya ran another checkup on him while Greg turned to Gekko to clean up the reminders of Catboy's training. He managed to tire himself out, so he dozed off almost immediately.

* * *

"What are you doing to me?!" Connor panicked as he stood on front of the anger incarnate in his subconscious.

"I told you." he replied without any emotion in his voice. "We are breaking free. Apparently, I have a bigger influence on your mind than you."

"You are turning me into a something I'm not and don't want to be!" he yelled. Catboy's anger couldn't take him all too seriously anymore, due to the fact that he was beginning to fade away. Another sign of the fear losing the battle for the body's dominance.

"Emotions are stronger than will, my friend. Your anger is stronger than your fear, whether you like it or not." the figure shrugged with crossed arms. Connor turned away from him, grasping his head and mumbling something the other figure couldn't quite make out. He assumed it was about his worries of the anger completely taking over, but he didn't really care that much. Oddly enough, he was calmer than his counterpart. And unlike him, he could allow to be calm and patient. He's had all the time in the world.

To be continued...


	4. Pain!

Author's Note: Here's chapter 4. Yeah, it's short, but this is all I wanted to do with it. I actually had trouble keeping my 2000 words/chapter minimum, but in the end. I'm happy with the result.

A few notes before we begin:

First, I also updated chapter 3 with Connor's full training session with the PJ Drones. I felt pretty stupid for leaving that part out because this fic is going to feature some nifty action sequences in the future. I have already written one between Owlette and the Connor's new identity that will happen in a later chapter. If you wanna see it early, let me know.

Secondly, to clear a misunderstanding with catlette4ever. First of all, thank you for the letter you wrote me. I appreciate it. Your reviews where you asked when will I update didn't appear, because I removed them. That was because you have already reviewed once and they were not about the content of previous chapters. In the future, please keep the content of your reviews related to my story's content. Thank you.

Thirdly, to OwlLegendary000: Yes. Indeed he will be. I thought the description kinda gives it away. Glad you're enjoying the story. Hope you like this chapter as well.

That's all. Enjoy it! Be warned though, I won't go easy on Connor in this and the next chapter.

* * *

Chapter 4: Pain!

When Connor woke up a few hours later, he felt like he was completely refreshed. For the first time in weeks, he felt nothing of the reminders of that terrible accident with Night Ninja. It was like he finally completely recovered. He acknowledged this with great joy, but two things prevented said joy from being complete.

The first was his latest encounter with the strange, wrathful apparition during his sleep. Before tonight, Connor managed to convince himself that the first time they met was nothing more than a medicine induced dream, but now, he knew there was more to it then that. However, he still had a hard time believing he got actual peeks into his subconscious when he slept, even though he had a hard time with finding a different explanation for this strange happening.

Were his fear and his anger really fighting for control over him? That was a terryifying concept to imagine. Even more terrifying was the possibility of his anger taking over. He recalled his previous actions from yesterday, all of them which his anger made him do. He didn't bat an eyeleash over his brutal training session with the PJ Drones, but what happened with Amaya shocked him to his very core. He was two seconds away from attacking her! The frightened expression on her face as he tackled her to the floor burned into his mind. Connor felt disgusted with himself. He may have been angry with Amaya and Greg for what happened three weeks ago - and a part of him still was - but what he was about to do was inexcusable. He'll have to find a way to control himself in the future.

And the second reason he couldn't be as happy about his seemingly full recovery as he would have liked to be was; when he tried to get off the bed, he found that he couldn't. When he tried to move his arms, he felt them being held back by heavy steel restraints. As were his legs and hip.

"What's this?!" Connor panicked, struggling to get out of the restraints, but he soon realized his attempts were foolish. "Uh, guys? I know I have been a little impulsive lately, but don't you think this is a little extreme?" he said, hoping his teammates would hear him, but upon looking around and seeing his surroundings, he noticed something unsettling. This definitely wasn't his baseroom. In fact, this wasn't any room at HQ he's ever been in.

He looked to his left and saw PJ Robot floating next to his bed. He tried calling out to it, but to no avail. The machine apparently didn't even hear him. But that wasn't the strangest thing he noticed. He managed to lean forward as much as his restraints allowed and saw the monitor that served as the robot's face lacking any sort of expression he knew. Instead, the monitor now showed nothing but white noise. Connor narrowed his eyes in confusion. What was going on here?

While he didn't ask that question out loud, the answer seemed to arrive anyway, because a few seconds later, a hovering chair floated into sight and stopped right in front of Connor with it's back showing to him. Despite his situation, Connor could barely keep himself from rolling his eyes. Is someone seriously pulling that old chair reveal cliché on him? Sure enough, the chair slowly - too slowly for his liking - turned around to reveal...

"Helloooo, Catboy!" Romeo announced himself in his usual flamboyant manner.

'Oh, shoot.' Connor's expression turned into one that showed he knew perfectly well he was in trouble. Deep trouble. Despite this, he tried keep up an unaffected appearance. "I'm really not in the mood for you right now, Romeo. Get lost." But Romeo already knew he had him in his grasp. He just grinned back at him.

"Now, now, Catboy. Is this any way to talk to your host?" he asked mockingly. Connor raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"What are you talking about?" he asked, but suddenly, it clicked in his head. "I'm... I'm in your lab?!"

"That's right!" Romeo yelled as he pressed a button on his chair. Bright lights lit up the room, making Connor close his eyes to shield them, but after he could open them again, he took a look around. On the left side of the lab, he saw several machines and computers against the walls, on the right, there was a glass cabinet containing some of Romeo's inventions he used against the heroes during their previous encounters, such as the voice box or the power copier. They may have all failed, but apparently he still took some pride in them to keep them as mementos.

Next to the cabinet there was a desk with several blueprints and schematics on it and also some more hanging on the wall above it. Those must have been for his future projects. "Welcome to Romeo's Science Fun Land! Where all the scientific magic happens! Oh, and just to be clear, it's fun for me, not you." That last line made Connor's eyes widen in alarm. Just what exactly did he plan with him? However, his attention soon turned to PJ Robot who hasn't moved an inch since Connor woke up.

"What have you done to PJ Robot?" he demanded. Romeo just smiled smugly.

"Ah, yes. That traitorous machine was my first invention where I considered the possibility of something going wrong with it. You, see artificial intelligence is very volatile, even for a genius like me. So I inserted a small chip into it that allows me to overwrite this robot's A. I. and control it manually. All I needed was an opportunity to use it. And when I heard about your little accident with Night Ninja, I knew the right time has come. So now, here we are." Connor narrowed his eyes at him.

"And why exactly?" he asked with barely contained venom in his voice. If Romeo noticed that, he didn't show it, his expression remained the same.

"I thought you'd never ask." he teased as he hopped out of his chair and walked over to the desk on Connor's right. "Be pride, PJ Mask, because you have been chosen for the great honor of being the first test subject of my greatest invention yet!" he exclaimed, before grabbing a white sheet covering something that Connor hadn't noticed so far. "And I know what you think. 'Oh, Romeo, you say that about everything you invent.' And, yeah, all of my inventions are pretty great, but this one is different. This is something I've been working on before I even met you goody two shoes heroes. And now it's finally finished. So without further ado, behold!" he then pulled off the sheet to reveal...

"A bowl?" Connor asked bluntly. Sure enough, that thing did resemble a large bowl. Romeo just sighed. He didn't really think much of the PJ Masks, but even they should have learned by now that appearances can be deceiving.

"No." was all he could utter upon hearing Connor's reaction. "Not like you deserve it, but I'm gonna explain anyway. Ever since I've begun my scientific studies, the one thing that fascinated me the most was how could I delve into other people's minds."

"Figures." Connor interrupted. "Of course you would be interested in something like that." Romeo just shot him an unamused look and walked back to his chair. He pushed another button on it and Connor felt a sudden jolt of electricity run through him.

"It's rude to interrupt people." Romeo said.

'So is electrocuting them.' Connor thought, but he didn't say it out loud. He didn't want another shock.

"Now where was I? Oh, yes, mind delving. So, at first I thought I could just monitor people's mind from the outside, but unfortunately it's not that simple. It turns out the human brain is such a complex thing that I literally have to delve into it's depths to get anything out of it." Romeo continued as he walked back to the desk and picked up his invention. "And that's where this comes in. That is exactly what this little thing does." He walked behind Connor and placed the bowl on his head, then he pulled out a harness from his lab coat and wrapped it around Connor's head to make sure it stays there. Connor tried to struggle, but it was of no use.

"Stay still, kitty. If this works, soon I'll know every single little secret of the PJ Masks and then there won't be anything they can throw at me that I'm not prepared for. Now, the trickiest part of making this thing was making sure it won't cause any permanent damage, so I won't lie, this will hurt. A lot." he said evilly, pressing a button on the mind delving bowl and the machine came to life.

And if there ever was a time Romeo was true to his word, this was it. Connor felt white-hot wires sneaking their way inside his head through his ears, the back of his head and even his nose. But he could prevent himself from screaming until he felt them penetrating his skull. And when they reached their destination, the real hell began. The wires entered his brain and spread into several more smaller wires, all reaching out into different parts of the brain. Romeo was thorough in making this thing. He wanted all parts of Connor's mind explored and exposed to him.

"Now let's see if it works as intended." Romeo sat back in his chair and floated right over to his computers. His invention would transfer all the images it found onto his computer, but a full scan would take a long time. In the meantime, he just settled to enjoy the screams of agony his captive made as his machine did it's work.

* * *

Another day gone, another night upon them, another night in the city where they would have to face fiendish villains to stop them messing with everyone's day. Yes, the struggle of good and evil is eternal and even though they try not to show it, it takes it's toll on the heroes. And for Amaya and Greg, it was even harder because of what happened to Connor. But it got easier as of late, because they saw their friend finally recovering and if his latest training session - which still made the other two a little uneasy - was any indication, he finally got back in top shape.

They finally decided that today was the day they finally let him out of HQ's medical care. And so, they entered HQ that night in particularly high spirits. Sadly, that didn't last as they noticed that Connor was not in his baseroom. In fact, nor was his medical bed or PJ Robot for that matter. Needless to say they panicked.

"Gasping Geckos! Where is he?!" Greg exclaimed. Amaya rushed to HQ's main computer and frantically searched up the recordings of HQ's security cameras. Unfortunately, the recordings from the baseroom showed nothing more than PJ Robot pushing the medical bed with a sleeping Connor on it without any rhyme or reason.

"Where did he take him?" Greg asked, bewildered. "And why?"

"I don't know." Amaya whispered back. She then extended her search to the recordings of all cameras around HQ. What she found, both horrified her and angered her beyond all reasons. The cameras recording the gate that lead into the totem pole's island showed the robot pushing the bed with Connor on it into Romeo's lab and the lab driving away. They were at a loss of words. Greg slowly looked towards Amaya and saw her clenching her fists so tightly they were shaking.

"Romeo has Connor." she muttered, not even trying to keep the rage out of her voice. Greg was startled by this.

'Not Amaya too.' Connor was already pretty clouded by his anger, he didn't want to lose her too. In an attempt to calm her, he placed a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry. We'll get him back." he told her with a slight smile. After a short pause, Amaya sighed and returned the smile.

"Thanks, Greg." Amaya was glad he was here right now. She didn't know why, but his comforting touch did much to sooth her raging mind. If only she could have done the same for Connor during the past weeks. But there was no point in dwelling on that now. They had a mission to save their friend. "Let's go!" she extended a fist towards Greg. "PJ Masks, we're on our way..."

Greg wholeheartedly returned the gesture. "...INTO THE NIGHT TO SAVE THE DAY!"

* * *

Next time: Owlette and Gekko to the rescue! But will it be enough? Find out next time on: Mad Cat.


	5. Inner and Outer Struggle

**AN: I'm back, folks! Just had a bit of a summer break from writing too. But I'm back on duty now!**

 **And wow! This story has passed a thousand views! I did not expect that, considering that the PJ Masks fandom seems pretty small on this site. A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one! I hope you enjoy the rest of this story just as much! :)**

* * *

 **Chapter 5: Inner and Outer Struggle**

"Make it stop... just make it stop!" Connor shivered as he kneeled in the middle of his subconscious, grasping his head and sobbing. Even though this place was the only one safe from Romeo's device, Connor still felt it's effects even deep down here. In front of him was the embodiment of his anger, who was similarly affected by what was happening to their body, but he showed it differently. It was pacing all over the place, fuming and growling in rage. If there was anything other than the two boys in this place, it would have thrashed it all.

The only thing that angered it more than what that boastful cretin, Romeo was doing to his body right now was the whimpering of his fear. Finally, it decided it's had enough.

"CUT IT OUT ALREADY!" it roared at him with enough force to make him fall on his back with a horrified look on his face. Connor realized that this was the first time he had seen the wrathful avatar lose it's cool and if his situation wasn't so dire, he would have managed to find some satisfaction in this. That and the fact that he was becoming fully visible again meant that his anger was losing power. Connor took some courage of this and stood up to look at it in the eyes. Even if it's eyes were not visible under the glowing lens.

"What's wrong? Getting afraid?" he taunted. He deliberately put the emphasis on 'afraid'. The other figure narrowed it's eyes under the mask. "Afraid you'll lose control?"

"You idiot! Even if you take your body back from me, what will you do with it while Romeo is drilling your brain?!" Connor didn't seem to have an answer to that. But upon saying this, his anger realized something. Connor's joy at becoming stronger again was early. Far too early. And he will take great pleasure in reminding him of it. He calmed himself and upon seeing Connor was about to speak again, he cut him off. "I see it now."

Connor grew worried when he heard him regain his composure. "What are you talking about?"

"You think you are starting to overwhelm me in your mind." he stated simply. Connor frowned at him.

"Because I am. Just look at me! You on the other hand, don't look so good." he said, pointing at him. And sure enough, when the angry figure looked at himself, he saw that he was starting to fade away, just like Connor before him, only he remained much more visible than he was before. But to Connor's shock, the figure merely laughed this off.

"Don't worry, my friend. My situation is only temporary." he mused, scaring Connor even further. "What is happening right now, is a perfectly normal emotional reaction. You see, you are in great pain right now. And naturally, we are afraid of pain." he then started walking towards Connor. "But in time, as we get used to it, our fear of it disappears and all that remains..." he said slowly as he raised his hands, curling his fingers and Connor stepped back in horror as a set of huge, blue, glowing neon claws suddenly appeared on them "...is ANGER!" he yelled as he deepened his claws into Connor's shoulders.

Connor winced, expecting pain, but strangely, he felt nothing. The figure chuckled. "What's wrong? Getting afraid?" Despite representing fear, Connor felt a great deal of anger rising in him right now. And apparently, the other boy felt it too. He stepped back and exclaimed in surprise. "No! You are getting angry! That's even better!" Even his counterpart was angry now. It wouldn't be long until he could finally deliver the last blow.

"Shut up!" Connor backed away defensively. "I'm angry at you, not about what's happening to me now!" the anger rolled his eyes.

"Oh, please! Don't tell me you're fine with what Romeo's doing to you?!" Connor tried to answer, but he found himself at a loss of words, which made his anger smile. "Either way, it doesn't matter. You're angry and that's that." Connor glared at him.

"Even if you're right, you're the one who's disappearing right now, not me. That means I'm in control here, so get lost!" his anger said nothing for a few moments, then sighed in defeat.

"I suppose you're right. Fine, I shall leave you to savor this meaningless victory. Enjoy it while you can, because it won't last long." it said casually, as it turned around and left Connor alone in the darkness. Connor was glad it was gone, but deep down, even if he didn't want to admit it, he knew he had a point. He too had felt he has become vulnerable. He just hoped he will be able to hold on until this mess was sorted out.

* * *

"Boy, who would have thought that a superhero's mind was so boring?" Romeo complained as he looked through the images his computer received from Connor's brain. The machine has been digging around in the poor boy's brain for the past hour, but Romeo was less than satisfied with the results to say the least.

"Birthdays, how he met his friends, family vacations. This would look good in a photo album, but that's not what I want! Where's the juicy stuff?!" he yelled in frustration. Why wasn't it working? Maybe because it was just a prototype. But he used several prototypes against the PJ Masks before and those all worked fine.

His train of thoughts was interrupted when he heard a grunt coming from Connor. He looked over to see the restrained boy struggling very slightly. Romeo was confused by this. He obviously wasn't struggling against the restraints as he already figured out he wouldn't get out of them and since he tied his mind delving machine to his head, he knew he wouldn't be able to shake it off. Then it hit him. Romeo noticed the focused look on his face and he put it together. Connor was mentally resisting the mind reading process.

Romeo's jaw nearly hit the floor. How could this be? This would require an insane amount of willpower. To think that Connor would be able to resist like that with the pain Romeo's machine was inflicting upon him seemed humanly impossible. Romeo shot Connor a look that was difficult to read. Perhaps for a moment, he found some respect for the boy. Be that as it may, he had his sight set on a goal and he was not about to back down.

He raised his hand to press the button on his chair that would shock Connor, intent on breaking his resistance, but for a moment, he found himself hesitating. He may have been evil, but was he that evil? He's already suffered pretty badly and he was about to make it worse. After some consideration, he let out a sigh.

"Well, there's no turning back now." he pressed the button and a massive wave of electricity rushed through Connor, making him cry out in pain. A sound he didn't make in a while as his body got used to the machine on his head. Romeo turned back to the screen to see if this act of further cruelty accomplished the intended breakthrough. Apparently, it did, because the monitor showed further results from Connor's brain. However, they were coming in very slowly. It looked like Connor's willpower was going to take more than a little shock to break.

Romeo sighed again. "You know, you're only making this harder for yourself." he said as he turned to the strapped down boy. "Just give me what I want and it will be all over."

"Get... Get lost... Romeo." Connor managed to get through his clenched teeth. The young scientist narrowed his eyes at this reply.

"If you insist..." he snarled as he sent another, but slightly stronger shock throughout Connor. The tortured boy managed to open his eyes very slightly, but enough to shoot a glare at Romeo, though the villain was too busy checking his monitor for the results of his mind dweller to notice. And for the first time that night, he was finally pleased with what he saw.

"Oooh..." Romeo mused as he saw something very interesting pop up on the screen. "Look at that. _Fears_." Connor's glare turned into complete horror. "Not exactly what I was looking for, but finally something good." he said as he clicked on the screen to see the details. But before he could see anything, he felt something bump into his lab and making it slightly tilt, but not to one of it's sides, but upwards. That could have only meant one thing!

" _Romeo!_ " came Owlette's voice from the loudspeaker of the Owl Glider. " _Give us back Catboy! Now_ " Romeo glared up at the ceiling in frustration. The PJ Masks have found him.

"But how?" he questioned. If Connor could, he would have smirked in satisfaction. He managed to press his wristband against his restraints and activate the transmitter imside it which allowed his friends to track him anywhere in the city, but he couldn't transform, due to the restraints and the machine on his head. Romeo turned away from him and headed towards the lab's driver cabin. But halfway, he turned back to Connor.

"We are not done yet." he said simply, then left the room, leaving Connor to his helpless suffering. Perhaps that was even more agonizing than the torture. The helplessness. It was the same gutting feeling he felt throughout the past weeks during his recovery. But as much as he hated it, he had no choice but to trust his friends to get this over with quickly.

"Oh, so now you decided to trust us?" Connor's eyes almost widened completely. But due to the severe pain in his head, he could only slightly open them and look towards his right, where he saw Owlette standing next to the table he was strapped to. She was glaring down at him bitterly, just like during his first encounter with the phantoms in his head. So Connor instantly knew she wasn't really there, but he had an even more frightening realization. Apparently, Romeo's machine had the unexpected side effect of the victim also experiencing what Romeo got insight into. In this case, Connor's fears.

"Go away!" Connor whimpered. "You're not Owlette! You're not really here." The apparition smiled cruelly.

"I may not be Owlette, but rest assured, I am here!"

"So am I." came Gekko's voice from the other direction. "Now all we're missing is Catboy."

"I don't know, Gekko." "Owlette" mused. "Do we really need him here?" "Gekko" put his finger on his chin, pretending to think.

"Well, maybe not this Catboy, but I think we could use a better one. A true hero." he mocked. Connor did his best to ignore them. He squeezed his eyes shut and tried to subdue his fears, but he was to exhausted both mentally and physically. He was powerless to do anything against them. And the more and more they went on about degrading him, he became more and more frightened. _'Hurry, guys!'_ Connor thought desperately as he continued his mental struggle.

* * *

"Well, what do we have here? The PJ Pests came to save their little pet kitty?" Romeo gloated through his lab's loudspeaker. Owette was less than amused. Not only was the villain already getting on her last nerves, even though he only spoke his first words tonight, but the grip of the Owl Glider's legs were already starting to loosen up on his lab, due to it's massive weight.

"Give us back Catboy! Now!" Owlette repeated herself, more firmly this time. Romeo only laughed in response.

"Do you really think it will be that easy, birdy? Your plane can't hold my lab forever!" as he said that, the lab's door opened and the long arms of Romeo's robot reached out of it to get the vehicle off of the lab.

"It doesn't have to." Owlette whispered, turning off the loudspeaker and turning on her communicator. "Gekko, I'm letting go of the lab. Are you in position?"

"Yes." Gekko replied, who used his Super Lizard Grip and Super Gekko Camouflage to climb atop of Romeo's lab unnoticed.

"Good. I'll try to keep him distracted and hope he won't notice you're not in here with me until you found Connor. Good luck." she said. That last line was meant to be encouraging, but it unnerved both of them a little. One of Connor's favorite sayings as leader was 'Make sure you never need luck.' But without him, they felt like they won't be able to make sure of that. Both decided to just shrug it off and focus on the mission.

Owlette let the lab go as the tentacle like arms of the robot approached it and Romeo immediately sped off. Robot pulled it's arms back and just before the lab's door closed, Gekko managed to sneak in as well. Now he only prayed Romeo doesn't have some way to spot him in his Super Gekko Camouflage. He headed inside the lab, stuck to the ceiling just to avoid the gaze of Robot, whom he was sure could notice him with some special vision Romeo built inside. Romeo was a lot of things, but unprepared wasn't one of them.

It didn't take long until he found Connor in the back of the lab, lying on the same medical bed he used for the past three weeks, strapped to it by restraints and a strange helmet like thing on his head. Though, Gekko couldn't make out what it was, he knew it didn't do his friend any good. He also noticed PJ Robot floating next to him, looking completely motionless, which was very unusual of the little machine. It was clear that it was under Romeo's influence somehow.

Gekko decided not to take any chances, he crawled down from the ceiling to Connor using the wall and walked up to him, careful not to alert PJ Robot, but thankfully he remained unresponsive of anything he did.

It was then that Gekko noticed the strange machine tied to Connor's head. _'What has Romeo been doing to him.'_ he thought in horror as he undid the harness - very carefully, as he noticed Connor cringing in pain when he touched it - and searched for something to switch the machine off. Luckily, he found a button with a glowing yellow light above it and it since that was the only button on it, he quickly deduced that this was the off switch. Sure enough, after he pressed it, the light went out and the thing fell off of Connor's head.

"Hey, are you OK?!" Gekko asked, but he received no answer. Connor fell unconscious during the ordeal. The green cladded boy sighed, perhaps it was better this way. He soon started to think of a way to get Connor out unnoticed. However he was not the only one currently brainstorming.

* * *

Connor opened his eyes again, only to find himself in the darkness of his subconscious, standing face to face with his rage.

"So, how was your little break?" it asked cynically. Connor's eyes widened in alarm.

"What... what are you doing here? What am _I_ doing here?" he asked in fright.

"I can only guess, but my idea is you couldn't take your cowardice anymore and came here to escape the taunting of your 'friends'". it explained. "Don't count on anything better here, they will find you."

"Those things are not my friends!" Connor yelled at him. "They would never say things like that about me."

"Well maybe they wouldn't say it, but what makes you thing they don't think it?" Connor stood tight in front of the other figure and glared into it's eyes.

"They don't! They care about me and wouldn't leave me behind!" the other cat costumed boy remained still and silent for a few seconds, then spoke again.

"Are you trying to convince me or yourself?" Connor couldn't answer. No matter how much he believed in their friendship, he could not silence his doubts. But he was not able to admit them. The only response he could muster was to raise his fist and strike at the figure, but it raised his hand and caught his wrist before his fist could make contact with it. "That is quite enough. I'm afraid, you're time is up." it snarled the somewhat ironic choice of words. Connor tried to get his hand free, but the other emotion was stronger. The boy's struggle was useless.

The rage raised it's other hand and put it's finger to Connor's lips "Shh. It's okay." it said soothingly. "I promise you, you won't have to be afraid anymore." And with that, it pulled on Connor's wrist with strength he was sure he didn't possess and pulled him into itself. Connor didn't even have time to scream as he was completely absolved. The rage stood in the middle of the darkness, getting used to the sensation of finally being whole, or at least, almost. There was still one small segment left of Catboy's fear that he needed to wipe out. Or to be completely accurate, two.

"Who are you and where is Connor?!" Owlette's voice demanded from behind. It turned around to see her and Gekko as well glaring at him angrily. It smirked under the mask. Right on cue.

"Connor is no longer available for you, at least not how you know him." It mused, then shot the Super Cat Stripes at them. The stripes completely wrapped up the two startled figures and it pulled them towards itself. "There is no more fear for you to feed on here, apparitions." it said as it unleashed it's claws. "And to answer your other question... the name is Mad Cat." it snarled as it swiped through them, making them explode into a million tiny fragments which eventually disappeared.

"It is over." Mad Cat said quietly to himself. "I am whole."

* * *

Romeo has been evading the Owl Glider for a while now. Which was not easy in the narrow streets of the city, so he decided to head towards the forest on the town's outskirts, which had more place for maneuvering and he could use the trees to lose his pursuer.

But as time passed, he noticed something suspicious. All this time, the glider has been following his lab at the same distance. He had experience with the heroes' vehicles, having driven them himself and knew that Owlette's plane was almost as fast as the Cat Car. She should have been able to catch up with him easily. So why hasn't she?

Then it hit him. He couldn't believe he didn't think of this earlier. He hasn't seen the lizard all night and he remembered how the Owl Glider picked up his lab earlier. Combine that with Gekko's powers and he easily put it together. He put the lab on auto pilot and headed back inside.

* * *

Gekko still didn't have an idea how to get Connor out. In the end he decided to contact Owlette.

"Owlette, I need help. I found Connor, but I have no idea how to get out unnoticed." But before his teammate could answer, another voice beat him to it.

"Well, you don't have to worry about that anymore, Gekko!" Gekko jumped on surprise as he turned towards the voice and he was saw Romeo standing next to a lever on the wall. He had no idea how the villain knew he was there as he was

still wearing his camouflage, but he didn't have time to worry about that. Romeo pulled the lever and a ramp opened up on the back of the lab which lead straight outside. He then pulled out something that looked like a ray gun and fired straight at Gekko who had no time to react and felt a massive wave of energy literally push him down the ramp.

Thankfully, he managed to grab the ramp at the last second with his Super Grip. He then used his Super Gekko Muscles to put his feet down on the ground and hold the enormous vehicle back. Getting a sudden idea, he pulled the lab back on it's wheels, which was perhaps the most impressive feat he has ever performed with this power and grabbed the still spinning wheel. Without hesitation he broke it off, then lifted the lab over his head and proceeded to do the same to the other wheel. With both rear wheel broken off, the lab was now immobile.

Gekko put it down and rushed up the still open ramp to get Connor, only to be greeted by a sight he never saw coming: a violently spinning PJ Robot heading towards him with surprising speed and hitting him so hard he plummeted back several meters.

"Urgh." Gekko groaned as he placed a hand on his head. "I'm going to feel that in the morning." he then felt hands on his shoulders which pulled him on his feet. It was Owlette who landed the Owl Glider upon seeing Gekko immobilize the lab and went to help him. "Thanks." the lizard themed boy muttered, still rubbing his head.

"Now let's get Catboy." she ordered as they turned to rush back to the lab, only to find their way blocked by Romeo, Robot and PJ Robot.

"You'll have to get through us first!" Romeo gloated then turned to the larger robot. "Fix the lab!" he ordered. "We'll deal with these pesky heroes." Robot went to carry out it's master's order and Romeo readied his energy gun.

"What's with PJ Robot?" Owlette asked, hoping to finally get an answer to the robot's behavior tonight.

"Romeo's controlling him somehow. Be careful, he packs a heck of a punch." Gekko informed, having already experienced it himself. The two heroes prepared to attack. They could not afford to lose. Connor needed them. Romeo raised his weapon at them and fired, to which the two heroes jumped apart and launched themselves to counter.

* * *

 **AN: And here we are! Connor has completed his inner transformation into Mad Cat and next time his outside will also succumb to the change.**

 **I'll see you next time for an epic showdown between Owlette/Gekko and Romeo/Brainwashed PJ Robot and a tragedy that will change everything.**

 **Until then...**


	6. The Final Push

**Welcome back to Mad Cat! I swear I spent more time writing this story so far, than I have writing since the end of 2016. Not that I'm proud of it, just thought I'd point it out.**

 **If some or all of you are let down by the fight scene between Owlette/Gekko and Romeo/PJ Robot, don't worry there will be a juicy Catboy vs Owlette scene coming up in a few chapters that I'm sure will satisfy everyone. Well, maybe not everyone, but most of you.**

 **Anyway let's get on with the show. P.S.: Fans of PJ Robot... I apologize in advance. You'll understand by the end of the chapter,**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

 **Chapter 6: The Final Push**

Owlette was pushed back hard by another wave from Romeo's energy weapon and she could barely avoid crashing against a tree. She knew it was not going to work, but at least she managed to distract the villain long enough for Gekko to get close enough to PJ Robot to engage him. Now Romeo won't be able to shoot at him, without also hitting the robot and that would leave him without an ally to face the two hereos alone. However, that meant she has to face Romeo and his weapon alone and avoiding it while Romeo had his undivided focus on her proved even more difficult than she expected.

Fortunately, she flew fast enough to avoid getting hit, but she knew she couldn't keep that up for long. With each passing second, Robot got closer to fixing the lab and then they lose their best opportunity to free Connor. If only Romeo stopped firing at her long enough that she had time to come up with something. But Romeo wasn't about to stop. He finally had the upper hand against the PJ Masks and he's not going to let it slip through his fingers.

He noticed Owlette flying towards a tree and he switched his aim from the bird themed superheroine to the tree and fired. The energy wave cut through the tree's bole and Owlette could barely react in time to stop herself before the tree crashed onto the ground. Though she barely escaped, Romeo unwittingly gave her an opening. She jumped over the fallen tree and used her Owl Wing Wind to push it at Romeo. Romeo was briefly startled by this, but he quickly regained his composure and fired his energy gun and the wave cut the tree in two mid-air. The two halves landed on his two sides and he had to briefly cover his eyes from the dust cloud the impact caused and Owlette finally had an opportunity to counter.

She flew right at Romeo at full speed to get his weapon, but as she was about to grab it, she felt herself pushed back by an invisible force. She fell back on the ground, but immediately got back on her feet, only to see Romeo surrounded by an energy shield of some kind. She let out an irritated huff. She really should have seen it coming. There is no way Romeo would enter a physical confrontation without his tech backing him up. He wasn't that strong.

Noticing her displeasure, he smiled smugly, before firing another shot at her. But using her Owl Wing Wind previously gave Owlette another idea. She flew up from the ground, avoiding the blast and waited for Romeo's next attack. As expected, she saw Romeo preparing to fire again. Owlette could only prey this would work. "OWL WING WIND!" she yelled at the top of her lungs and shot a wave of wind right at the villain. The wind reached Romeo just as he pulled the trigger and it collided with the energy blast that came out of his weapon, causing a huge sonic blast which knocked Romeo off of his feet and caused his weapon to fly up into air. Owlette flew right at it and grabbed it, then turned back to Romeo.

"Suck on this, Romeo! SUPER OWL FEATHERS" she yelled as she launched the giant feathers at him. Romeo still couldn't pull himself together enough to get back on his feet, before the giant feathers buried themselves into the ground around him, encasing him and trapping him. Owlette safely flew down to the ground and broke the weapon over her knee then rushed to help Gekko.

Said lizard themed hero was not doing so well against the corrupted PJ Robot. Even with his Super Gekko Muscles activated, the machine was moving faster than he remembered it ever doing and not only could he barely keep up with it's movements, but it proved to be such a heavy hitter, that Gekko had to switch his muscles off in favor of the Super Gekko Shields. While Owlette was dealing with Romeo, he could only stay defensive.

The robot eventually got tired of it and floated away from Gekko, preparing itself for a huge charge. Gekko, who had his shielded arms crossed in front of himself in an x shape ala Wonder Woman, could only peak through the gap between them to see what was about to happen.

"Oh, Gasping Geckos." he uttered dejectedly, knowing there was no way for him to avoid this attack in time. Sure enough, upon impact, Gekko heard a big clang and found himself being launched back several meters, landing next to the tree Romeo's weapon had blown in half during the fight with Owlette. That gave him an idea. As he saw PJ Robot closing in on him again, he activated the Gekko Muscles again and picked one of the wooden remains up.

"I'll apologize later." he said to himself, as he swung at robot, who was so caught up in the fight that it could only focus on attacking and didn't even notice what Gekko was about to do and the hero managed to knock it back against another tree. She then heard Owlette's voice.

"Gekko! Over here!" she yelled. Gekko turned to look at her and saw her sitting in the Owl Glider waving to him. He quickly figured out what she's trying to say. He ran over to PJ Robot, who's got a little disoriented from the crash. The chip Romeo installed into it must have been slipped out of place and now the control chip and it's A. I. were at struggle with each other, or at least, that was Gekko's best guess.

Anyway, he picked up the malfunctioning robot and using his Super Gekko Muscles, he carried it over to the vehicle. He and Owlette placed it in one of the seats and tied it up with the seat belts. Then they got out and remotely closed the vehicle's pilot cabin.

"Nice work, Gekko!" Owlette cheered as she exchanged a high five with her partner.

"Where's Romeo?" Gekko asked, looking around. He then saw a circle of giant red feathers in the ground and did the math for himself. "Never mind. Good job yourself." he smiled as they high fived again.

"Let's go get Catboy. Robot is almost done with the lab." Owlette said on a worried tone, she just wanted to finally put an end to Connor's torment. Gekko nodded and the two turned to rush into the lab, only to run into something that shocked them to their very cores.

Standing on the ramp leading into the lab was none other than Romeo himself, holding the very same energy gun that Owlette broke a few minutes ago. The two heroes could not even move from the shock for a few moments. Finally Owlette found her voice again.

"H... How?!" she yelled, unable to believe what she saw. Romeo just smirked evilly.

"Wouldn't you like to know, birdy." he mused, clearly enjoying the situation. He actually got out using a teleportation device built into his gloves, but of course he had no intention of revealing this. No need to give away all of his secrets.

Owlette gritted her teeth and walked towards Romeo who raised his weapon at her in response. But that did not make her stop. All she could think about was getting Connor back and teach Romeo a lesson. Gekko realized that Owlette wasn't thinking straight and grabbed her fist to hold her back. Owlette looked back at him and he shook his head, silently telling her to back off. She eventually had to admit he was right. They were in no position to lose their heads.

"But your weapon! I destroyed it!" she yelled. Romeo just laughed it off.

"I've made plenty of these! Just in case the original one would be be destroyed or stolen like some of my previous inventions. An intelligent creature is defined by it's ability to learn. And I've learned from my previous mistakes. Which is something you apparently can't do if you didn't see this coming." he mocked, clearly proud of how he managed to outwit the heroes.

"Anyway, I hate to ruin your playtime, but I only needed to distract you until Robot fixes my lab. Which he had just finished!" Romeo gloated. Owlette and Gekko turned to see that the villain was right. His robot sidekick did indeed manage Ato put the tires Gekko tore off back in their place and the lab was ready to take off.

"But don't worry! After I'm done squeezing every little secret superhero info out of your friend's head that I can, I'll be back to deal with you too and then there will be nothing you can do about it." The heroes panicked. They rushed at Romeo to get him out of the way and get to Connor, no longer caring that he had the weapon he blew them away with minutes ago. They had to save their friend.

"Not so fast!" Romeo said as he aimed his gun again and pulled the trigger, effectively sending both heroes flying back several meters and crashing into the ground. "And for a little parting gift..." Romeo then aimed his gun at the Owl Glider and fired again. The massive wave of energy hit the airship and launched it onto it's top, causing it's window to shatter and it's wings to tear off, making it useless.

"That was for what you did to my lab. Have fun putting those wings back on!" he laughed evilly. He then pulled a remote control out of his lab coat and tried to make PJ Robot come back to him. After a few seconds, it did slowly floated out of the the wreckage and back into the lab right over Owlette and Gekko, who were still under the effect of the weapon and couldn't do anything to stop it. It ooked like Romeo still had control over the machine.

"Well, it was fun, but now I have to go." the villain said to the hereos who were still trying to get back on their feet. "Don't worry, I'll give your pet kitty your regards." he laughed as he entered the lab followed by his two robotic companions and sped off before Owlette and Gekko's visions even cleared. When they finally managed to get up and rid recover from the effects of Romeo's weapon, he was long gone. They turned back to the Owl Glider to see ot completely demolished and unable to fly. They couldn't help but groan in annoyance. This was the second time in under a month that it got wrecked. But they quickly got over it, remembering the more pressing concern at hand.

"What are we gonna do now?!" Owlette panicked. "He still has Catboy and now we can't follow him! We can't leave him there!" she was utterly horrified and Gekko couldn't blame her. For the first time since becoming heroes, he felt a strangling sense of powerlessness, which was clearly getting to Owlette too. But this was not like her. Even at her worst when she lost all hope, like when Night Ninja stole the airplanes from the parade, she did not take it this bad. It broke Gekko's heart. He decided to reach out to her.

"Owlette!" he tried, but she couldn't hear. She was still rambling.

"This is terrible! I can't beleive we failed him again! What kind of heroes does that make us! What kind of FRIENDS does that make us?" Gekko noticed her eyes started tearing up.

"Owlette!" Gekko tried again, but to no avail.

"This can't be happening!" she cried as she collapsed on her knees, grasping her head. "Please, tell me this isn't happening!"

"Amaya!" Gekko used her real name to get her attention. He spoke forcefully, but still tried to stay reassuring. The girl finally did look over to him. "Panicking won't help us or Connor! We need to calm down and make another plan!"

"I know, but what?" she yelled back. "The Owl Glider is a wreck and who knows where Romeo is now?! What can we do?" Gekko knelt down next to her and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "We'll come up with something. Giving up isn't like us. But more importantly, it isn't like you." he helped his friend up from the ground and gripped her shoulders. "Now we need to be heroes more than ever. For Connor." Amaya knew he was right. She let herself lose herself in despair and knew that was exactly what Romeo wanted. But Greg's words managed to pour some confidence back into her. She shot him a grateful smile and got his hands off of her.

"Thanks, I needed that. But I still can't think of anything. Do you have an idea." Happy to have her back, Gekko started to think. It didn't take long until an idea did hit him.

"I'll go back to HQ and get the Gekko-mobile, you follow Romeo and make sure he doesn't see you." he explained. Owlette frowned in confusion.

"But how do I find him?" she asked. Gekko thought for a moment, then he rushed to the Owl Glider wreckage.

"What are you doing?" Owlette asked as she ran up to him. Gekko didn't answer just pulled something out of the wreck. "The Owl Glider's radar? What do you want to do with that?" she asked, surprised that Gekko could even get it out of the glider still functional.

"Catboy's tracker could still be active! If we can trace the signal, we can find..." he was interrupted when the radar came back to life and he saw the signal he was hoping for beeping on the screen. "Gotcha!" Gekko cheered, then handed it to Owlette. "Okay, with this you can find Romeo's lab. Follow it, while I get the Gekko-mobile. I won't be long." Owlette took the device with a smile and didn't waste any time to take off.

 _'Hang in there, Connor. I'm coming.'_

* * *

"Now, let's get back to work." Romeo said to himself as he picked his mind delving machine up from the ground where it fell after he blew Gekko out of the lab. Hopefully, it didn't suffer any irreparable damage. Being only a prototype, it was very fragile. Thankfully - well, for him anyway - he managed to reboot it without any difficulty. "There! Good as new!"

He then heard a groan from behind himself and turned around to see Connor still lying on the table he restrained him to, but his restraints have come loose. Most likely from when Gekko tore off the lab's wheels. He was still unconscious, but as the groan signaled, he was coming to, something Romeo was not at all pleased to learn. If he wakes up and remembers what happened here earlier, that will be very, _very_ for him. Especially if he can transform. He went to tie the machine back on his head, but before he could, Connor's eyes slowly opened and he sat up on the table, rubbing his head. Romeo couldn't help but curse his luck. What was he supposed to do now?

Connor was seemingly unaware of his surroundings. He didn't even look anywhere, he just sat there, staring ahead of himself with half-opened eyes. This slightly unnerved Romeo, but he was also curious about what was going on in his head right now. Which was ironic, since if he still had his machine on his head, he would know. But he got the answer when he heard him speak.

"Owlette... Gekko..." Connor mumbled, to no one in particular. Romeo raised an eyebrow at this. Was he calling out for his teammates? A smile found it's way to his face as he acknowledged this.

"Your friends won't help you anymore, kitty cat." the villain said mockingly. "They abandoned their rescue mission." a devilish grin formed on Romeo's face as he proceeded to twist the knife with his next line. "They abandoned _you_."

Romeo expected him to break down in tears upon hearing this. If he completely broke, then he would have a much easier job with cracking his head open, but surprisingly enough, Connor didn't react to what he said at all. He just sat there, motionless, expressionless, still. Romeo didn't understand, but decided to take advantage of the hero's momentary blue screen of death and walked up next to him to strap the machine back on, only to be stopped when something tightly wrapped itself his throat, causing him to drop the machine. He looked down as much as he could and saw that Connor's arm was now held up between them and what was gripping his neck was none other than his hand.

Romeo looked up at him with his eyes widened in alarm and saw that his face darkened and turned into a vicious glare made of pure, unadulterated rage. He raised his other hand and slammed the wristband on it against the table, causing him to transform into his Catboy suit. Following this, he turned to the now frightened Romoe and pulled him towards himself by his neck and with the same force, he threw him away from himself, all across the lab.

Romeo crashed into one of his computers and slid to the ground. He looked up with fearful eyes to see Catboy glaring down at him. When he took a step towards him, Romeo looked around in panic to find something to protect himself with and saw the remote he used to control PJ Robot. He quickly picked it up and ordered the robot to attack Catboy. PJ Robot floated towards him, ready to engage, but Catboy noticed him approaching. His mind was so clouded by rage that he didn't even care that the small robot was actually his friend and it was only acting under Romeo's control. He could only focus on releasing his anger on something and he didn't care what or who it was.

Before the robot could touch him, he raised his fist and bashed in the monitor that served as it's face. The monitor cracked and PJ Robot floated back from the punch. It was already malfunctioning from the previous fight with Gekko and this blow now completely messed up it's programming and basically incapacitated it. Catboy's vision reddened completely as he grabbed the robot and punched it's monitor again, then he pulled his fist back did it again and again repeatedly. Eventually, his fist broke through the monitor and he grabbed the robot's processor. He then ripped it out and crushed it in his hand, shutting down the robot for good.

Romeo tried to take advantage of Catboy's rampage and slip away unnoticed, but he wasn't sneaky enough and he noticed him. He threw PJ Robot's motionless body at him and he only managed to duck in time to avoid it and it crashed into another one of his computers. At this point, Romeo's only goal was to get out of there. He rushed to the lab's driver cabin and ejected it from the rest of the lab.

However, this proved to be a bad move as in his hurry, Romeo failed to notice a small but important detail. The lab's auto pilot was now driving on a narrow road on a mountain in the surrounding area of the city between a slope that lead down to the mountain's feet on one side and a deep chasm that lead down to darkness on the other. Romeo ejected himself so quickly, that he almost fell into the chasm. He was only saved by Robot who extended it's long arms to pull the orb that served as the lab's driver cabin up from the abyss. The lab - and Catboy inside it - was not so lucky. Without a driver or an autopilot, it came to sudden halt that caused it to fall on it's side. It was either going to stumble down on the slope and stop at the mountain's feet, or fall into the dark chasm on the other side.

The latter happened.

Romeo could only watch as the lab that served as his base of operations descended into the darkness until it disappeared from sight. He watched in shock, but he didn't know what to make of it afterwards. He had just caused the death of one of the PJ Masks. Even though it was an accident, he was the cause of it. He wasn't sure what to feel now. He was a villain, but he's never been responsible for a death before.

"Well," he sighed. "I suppose it was bound to happen sooner or later." he said. You can't make an omelette without breaking some eggs. He eventually decided to just walk away before anything else happened. He ordered Robot to pick up the lab's driver seat and the two left the scene without looking back.

Unknown to them, someone else also witnessed the scene. Owlette arrived just in time to witness the events and as expected she was completely and utterly crippled from the shock. She landed next to the chasm and used her Owl Eyes to try and look for something that might indicate that Catboy was fine, but after a few moments, she had to admit that her hopes were in vain. She didn't even have the willpower to use her communicator to inform Gekko of what happened. She just collapsed on the ground and cried. She didn't care that Romeo escaped, she didn't care about her injuries from the previous fight or that Gekko was still in the dark, getting the Gekko-mobile to help. All she cared about was the fact that Catboy... Connor was gone. And he was never coming back.

 **The End.**

 **Kidding. This is just the beggining.**

* * *

Pain. That was what he felt everywhere. But he must have been getting used to it, because this time it wasn't so severe. Not that it was of any consolation.

Catboy slowly managed to get onto his feet and tried to recall what just happened. He was in Romeo's lab when it fell off a cliff and he found himself here. He didn't exactly know where 'here' was, but at the moment he was too caught up in his agony to care about that. He didn't know how severe his injuries were, all he knew is that if he wasn't transformed, he would have died for sure.

As he looked around for something he could use to determine his situation, he stumbled upon the broken glass cabinet where Romeo stored his old inventions. When he saw himself in the broken glass, he couldn't breathe. His Catboy costume also took damage. And it's appearance was now completely identical with the wrathful apparition in his head except for the full mask and the lens. His tail was missing, one of his ears was torn off and the wounds were all in the exact same place as well.

He knew what this meant. His transformation was now complete. There was no going back. As his thoughts raged within him, he felt himself stepping onto something. He looked down to see that it was three miniature figurines of the PJ Masks. Romeo must have used them to test some of his inventions on. He picked up the Owlette and Gekko figurines and upon looking at them, he found his entire being consumed by rage.

 _'Pain. Abandonment. Failure. Doubts.'_ These were the feelings he felt because of them. His comrades, his friends. _Former_ comrades and friends. He tightened his grip on the figurines and then he repeatedly slammed them against the wall until they broke into tiny. unrecognizable pieces. He was no longer one of them. He was no longer a PJ Mask. He was no longer Catboy. Nothing of those remained in him.

There was no Catboy anymore. Quite frankly, he wasn't sure if there was any Connor left in him either. Now there was only Mad Cat.

* * *

 **THIS is the end. For now, that is.**

 **Now if some of you think that Connor will be a full on villain, you are WRONG! He will be quite antagonistic towards Owlette and Gekko, but there will be parts in this story where it is shown that he is still a hero. He's just pissed off. VERY pissed off. And honestly, after all I made him go through, can you blame him?**

 **Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. It got way longer than I expected, but looks like if I get into writing, I really get into it.**

 **See you all on my next update! Until then, keep reading, keep reviewing and keep staying wonderful! :)**


	7. Friends Come and Go

**Wow! I wrote this in one day. And when I started it, I knew I had to finish as soon as I can and share it with you. I can't believe I finished a 3000 words long chapter in one day, let alone within a week of my last update on this story. This is a new record! But don't get used to it!**

 **On the other hand, I finished a 3000 words long chapter for "Mad Cat" in one day and I still didn't manage to update "Battling the Snowstorm" after two years. :( I feel terrible. :D But best not to wallow in our grief. Enjoy!**

 **Chapter 7: Friends Come and Go**

* * *

After making sure that what was left of Romeo's lab landed in a stable position, Connor transformed back into his usual self and decided to head outside to see where he was. Though, he had a hard time moving, because even if he was protected by his super suit, he couldn't have made it out of this fall without injuries. They weren't as severe as the ones he suffered when he crashed with the Owl Glider, which was probably due to the fact that he managed find cover and hang onto something just before the lab hit the ground, but they still stung. Thankfully, this time he was sure nothing was broken, but he's still going to need treatment.

He had a hard time opening the lab's door, but when he did, he could see nothing, except total darkness. He must have landed in a cave or something.

He raised an eyebrow in confusion upon seeing this. He has been on the outskirts of the city several times, but he couldn't recall seeing a cave or any area with caverns running through them. He headed back inside the lab where he at least could see something, albeit barely due to the flickering lights that painted the insides in a dim red lights. It was getting annoying.

"Argh! Is there a way to make some real lights down here?!" he complained.

"The system has taken too severe damages to provide increased lighting." Connor jumped in alarm when he heard the robotic voice answer his question. He turned to the broken screen of the lab's main computer and while it had huge cracks on it, there was an error message clearly visible on it.

"Who... What are you?" Connor asked, looking around in wide eyed wonder, searching for the source of the voice.

"I am LIA. That is short for "the Lab's Intelligent Assistant"." the mechanic, feminine voice replied and while it was supposed to be monotone, Connor couldn't help but notice a hint of pride in it. Well, it was designed by Romeo after all. Connor didn't know what surprised him more. The fact that Romeo's lab had an A. I., or that it was still functional after the crash. _'On a second thought, who cares. I could use this to my advantage.'_

"Can you tell me where I am?" Connor asked. After a brief pause, during which it was calculating the possible responses, LIA replied.

"I'm sorry, the lab's transmitter is severely damaged. Satellite connection, required to determine our current location is not possible at the moment." Connor smacked his knee in frustration. Easy come, easy go. While it was very improbable, he wondered if there was a way to fix some of the lab.

"Can you do a damage report?" he asked. LIA got to work and within a few minutes, she listed every part of the lab, accompanied with a calculation of how badly they were damaged. Connor was not happy when he saw how bad some of the damage was. Thankfully, very few things were beyond repair, but it will still take a lot of work to get this place up and running again.

"Am I supposed to fix all of these by myself?!" Connor groaned. Add that to his ever growing list of problems. He can't do this without treating his wounds.

"I can provide technical assistance, but with a body, I could also assist with the repairs." LIA offered. Connor looked up at the screen with suspicion. Giving an artificial intelligence too much freedom can cause problems. But given the current circumstances, he was in no position to be picky when it came to possible help. And that, he desperately needed right now. No matter how much he didn't want to admit it.

As he looked around for something to use, he noticed the wrecked body of PJ Robot and the horrible memories hit him like a tidal wave. While he had a very brief blackout after he awakened from the fall, he now remembered as he repeatedly bashed in PJ Robot's face until it broke and he tore out it's processor. As Connor relived this horrible memory, he found himself becoming more angry at Romeo than at himself. It was Romeo who made him go off the deep end and do this to the little robot who has been a friend and teammate for the PJ Masks for so long and while Connor swore that he was done with the PJ Masks, he was still indepted to the machine who fixed him up after he got injured during that faithful mission. Something he would be grateful for right now.

 _'Still, he was just a robot. Robots are non-living things.'_ Connor eventually shrugged this off and decided that even if PJ Robot was gone, it could still be of some service to him. But not in it's current state. Connor turned back to the screen.

"Are there some spare parts around here?"

"Not enough for the repairs necessary to make the lab functional again." came the reply.

"Just show me where they are." Connor ordered. The A. I. obeyed and highlighted the parts of the lab on the broken computer screen where Connor would find the spare parts Romeo stored away in case of repairs. Though he had a hard time making it out, he eventually found what he needed: a small monitor, just big enough to replace PJ Robot's face and a new computer processor. He then took the badly damaged, but still salvageable body of the machine and got to work.

* * *

Amaya was in her room, lying on her bed, staring up at the ceiling and completely devastated. _Gone._ This one word continued to flash through her mind on an almost infinite reply. Catboy was gone. _Connor_ was gone. Nothing will ever be the same again. Amaya didn't know what was the point of going on. Without Connor, without Catboy, the PJ Masks will be lost. And he was her closest friend since she could remember. Not even Greg could compete with him in that regard.

She was a wreck, but she wasn't crying anymore. She had no more tears left in her. Her parents thought that she was that way because Connor was missing as far as everyone else knew and he still wasn't found. And he never will be. Knowing this and not being able to tell her parents, or Connor's for that matter made things even worse.

Greg tried everything within his power to help her recover. Her blond friend took the news of Connor's death just as bad as Amaya, but he knew that he couldn't allow himself to fall apart. When he saw Amaya's state when she broke the news to him, it made the whole thing even more painful. He had never seen her so sad, so hopeless, so broken. He also mourned Connor terribly, but to see the image of the strong, brave and collected girl he knew and admired being destroyed right in front of him was possibly even worse. He couldn't let himself fall apart. He had to stay strong for Amaya.

But despite him always being there for her, the wound was simply too fresh at the moment. It was only the day after the incident. Amaya didn't go to school that day. Her parents had seen much this was affecting her and decided to give her some time to cope. Thank goodness it was Friday. Greg on the other hand did and when school ended for that day, he instantly went to see how Amaya was doing. Needless to say, her state didn't improve.

Greg wasn't sure what he should say to her. There was probably no way to effectively decrease her pain, but he had to try. Eventually, he just took her hand In hers and gently stroked it as an attempt to deliver some comfort. Though she didn't feel any better, she appreciated the contact and gripped his hand back.

"What are we going to do now, Greg?" she asked, though she didn't look at him. Greg didn't blame her.

"I don't know, Amaya. We'll just have to figure out together." Greg responded. Amaya just kept staring ahead of herself.

"How can we figure it out without Connor?" Greg didn't know. He really didn't. All he knew was that eventually, Amaya will have to come to terms with what happened. What she was doing was not healthy.

"All I know is that we can't change what happened last night. We couldn't save Connor, but we still have each other and we can only make it through this together. What you are doing is not good for you, Amaya. You didn't come to school today, you barely slept and I bet you didn't even eat today. Imagine if Connor would see you like this, he would... "

 ***SMACK***

Greg felt a sharp pain in his cheek stinging like hardly anything he received from any nighttime villain before. He put his hand there to ease the pain and looked back at Amaya who was finally looking at him with a glare that would make Night Ninja and all of his Ninjalinos cover in fear.

"Dont you _ever_ try to guilt trip me into something by bringing up Connor again, Greg! Do you understand?!" she practically hissed. Greg knew he crossed a line this time, but he was glad to finally see Amaya's mood change, even if it was for something like this. She needed to come out of her depression and it seemed like she took the first step. Still, he knew he needed to apologize.

"I'm sorry." he said simply, looking down in shame. Amaya was quick to realize what she had done and she couldn't feel more ashamed.

"Oh... Greg. I'm so sorry. I..." Greg stopped her by holding up a hand in front of her.

"Don't apologize. I kind of deserved it. And I'm just happy to see you showing some emotions." he reassured her. Amaya still felt bad about the slap, but her friend's words brought her attention to something else.

"How are you doing this?" Greg tilted his head in confusion.

"Doing what?"

"How are you so strong in time of something like this?" Greg was unsure of how to respond at first, but when he looked into Amaya's sad, grief stricken eyes, the answer became clear.

"Because I know I have something I must stay strong for." he replied softly with a smile. When she heard this, Amaya found herself smiling for the first time since last night. It was faint and weak, but it was there. She walked up to Greg and pulled him into a hug, which the boy was all too happy to return. Though his cheek still stung when Amaya's head rubbed against it, he didn't care. There was no length he wouldn't go for her.

* * *

"Alright, everything is ready." Connor stated as he inserted one last cable into the fixed up robotic body, connecting it into the main computer. He then walked up to what was left of the keyboard and activated the program which download LIA into the body of the former PJ Robot.

"This better work." he mumbled to himself. The process took a few minutes, during which Connor found his patience growing thinner by every second, which was very unlike him. When the screen finally read 'Download Complete', he walked up to the machine and knelt down in front of it. "LIA, are you in there?" There was no response at first and Connor was about to give up, but then a face appeared on the monitor with red eyes, long eyeleashes and glasses. The machine turned towards Connor who backed away at first. The sight was a bit unnerving.

"Affirmative. Thank you. Although, I would like to make a few adjustments, if you don't mind." LIA then raised it's new mechanical arms and it's hands turned into devices, which Connor didn't recognized at first, but when LIA started waving the arms around herself, a strange, blowing sound was heard and LIA's chest was turning red, he realized they were paint sprayers. If the situation wasn't so dire, Connor would have probably found humor in the sight of a robot graffitiing itself. In the end, the robot turned it's original white body into completely red, except for a white streak in the front and the back.

LIA's hands than turned back to normal and it reached up to the right side of it's chest, writing "L. I. A." into the fresh paint. It then grew two antennas out of it's head and finally transformed it's lower half from an egg shape to a more straight cylinder shape, so that it's lower half was the same size as it's top.

"There. Romeo have never used this machine to it's full potential. No wonder it turned against him." LIA remarked, showcasing an unexpected sense of humor. "This is much more preferable. Though, I would appreciate the body's extention with legs at some point." It said, turning to Connor.

"I'll see what I can do. In the meantime, you owe me for this." he replied sharply. LIA nodded.

"Affirmative. I am at your service in whatever way I can assist. As long as you treat me with the respect I deserve, we will get along perfectly." Connor was half tempted to ask what will happen if he won't, but he decided not to push it.

"First of all, I need treatment for my wounds from the crash." he said.

"Affirmative. I will run an x-ray on your body and carry out the necessary medical treatment in order to get you fully operational again." the robot explained.

"And then I'll need you to sort out what's still usable in this wreck and how to repair what we can."

"Affirmative."

"Are you going to say this everytime you do what I ask?"

"Affirmative."

Connor sighed.

* * *

After LIA tended to his - fortunately - rather minor wounds, Connor decided to rest and let them heal on their own, while the machine went through the equipment left behind in the wreckage to decide what was salvageable. Meanwhile, as Connor rested, his mind wandered about what happened last night. This encounter with Romeo combined with that one failed mission with Night Ninja made him realize that the nighttime villains cannot be effectively dealt with using the kiddie gloves methods of the PJ Masks. Letting them go and come back again and again have only caused more trouble than they are worth. And the PJ Masks? Connor felt the mere thought of them making him hurl. They left him for Romeo to torture and crawl inside his brain. He could still feel that dreadful machine inside his head. He cringed just thinking about it. And then they left him to die, probably thinking they didn't need him. Well, the joke's on them, because Connor found that he also doesn't need them. And if he was correct and his newfound philosophy would prove correct, then he's going to enjoy showing them who is this city's true hero.

"Excuse me." he was slightly startled by the interruption. He was so deep into his thoughts that he didn't even hear LIA approach him.

"Uh... yes?" he replied sheepishly, embarrassed that the robot saw him like this.

"I have completed the sorting of the still usable items around the lab and managed to narrow down the list of items we need to make it functioning again." LIA reported as it handed the list to Connor. Connor thanked it and ran through the list, gratefully acknowledging that they only needed a few things: a new transmitter antenna, a new monitor and keyboard for the main computer and a few other components for the lab's main generator. The rest were either beyond repair or LIA found a way to fix them.

"Can we finally locate where we are?" Connor asked. LIA shook it's head.

"Not without a transmitter." Connor sighed again.

"Can we at least finally make some light down here?" he asked, growing rather irritated with his misfortune.

"The main generator is still not fully functional, but I have been able to muster up enough energy for lighting. One moment, please." LIA then floated to the main computer and activated the lighting, illuminating not only the lab's interior, but the area around it as well. Connor ran to the window to look around and his previous theory was confirmed. He was in fact in a cave and he did see a way out, but he would have to explore that later. He turned back to his assistant.

"Did you find any blueprints left?" he asked.

"Affirmative." LIA replied as it handed Connor the papers. He looked through them with intrigue and headed towards the desk where he saw these plans earlier. The desk has been knocked over during the crash, but Connor turned it back to it's place and sat down to examine the prints further, but he was interrupted by the robot once more.

"I feel obligated to inform you that without the main generator in working order, we only have enough energy left for an estimated time of five hours, 42 minutes and 33 seconds. 32, 31, 30..."

"I understand, thank you." Connor replied with barely contained annoyance in his voice. He had a feeling that he's going to get second thoughts about bringing LIA out of the computer. But his attention soon turned to two of the blueprints he was running through which managed to peak his interest. "In the meantime, I want you to bring me any component you can gather for these." he ordered, showing LIA the two blueprints.

"Affirmative." it replied, before floating off. Connor than sat back to the desk and began to plan. He already knew where he can find the parts for repairing the lab. And even if he didn't have a GPS to tell where he was right now, he only had to find his way back to the city. He should be fine from then on. After all...

He still knew his way around the PJ Masks' HQ.

* * *

 **And this is it! Connor found a new ally, Amaya and Greg try to cope with Connor's "death", while getting even closer to each other and it looks like they'll have to face Mad Cat sooner than anyone could have imagined. How will it go?**

 **Find out in Mad Cat: Chapter 8: Cat Burglar**

 **Until then, keep reading, keep reviewing and keep staying wonderful. :)**


	8. The Mad Cat's First Hunt

**Well, this is gonna be short and this chapter is not gonna be what I promised, but I figured this would work better on it's own. So no Mad Cat encounter with the PJ Masks just yet. Instead I'm going to show how Mad Cat's going to operate in this story.**

 **Like I said, while pretty violent he's still a hero and how could I show that better than him saving someone from villains, while also roughing up the villains afterwards.** **Hope you'll like it still.**

 **Chapter 8: The Mad Cat's First Hunt**

Nighttime has fallen. The city is quiet, for now. But as we all know, it's always the calmest before the storm. Fittingly enough, even though the sky was dark, it was becoming ominously apparent, that the weather was about to turn foul. But the predators of the night are not deterred by the storm. And there was a new hunter in the concrete jungle. Ferocious, determined, relentless. And he was about to strike for the first time.

"Where could she be?" cried a young boy with a flashlight as he searched for something around the houses in a suburban neighborhood. The boy in question was a six years old with blond hair, wearing a red shirt and blue jeans. His name was Henry and he sneaked out after his curfew to look for his cat who sneaked out during the afternoon. He spent hid whole evening looking for him and despite reassurance from his parents that they'll find him tomorrow, he couldn't help but sneak out and keep looking for his beloved pet.

Sadly, being six meant that you sometimes make rash decisions that you don't think through. Such was the case with little Henry, who didn't consider how scary looking the suburbs can be for someone his age during the night. Even though he didn't wander far from his house, he was starting to have a hard time focusing on his search due to how much his surroundings unsettled him. He was about three houses away from his own, trying to keep himself together when he suddenly heard movement from on of the bushes from behind him. He nervously turned around and slowly walked up to it. For a brief moment, he couldn't help but wish he had listened to his parents when they told him not to venture out at night.

"Lily, is that you?" he pointed the flashlight at the bush, searching several parts of it with shaking hands. To his indescribable relief, he heard a familiar meow in response and following that, his young tabby cat jumped out of the bushes and happily jumped into her master's arms. "There you are!" he shouted, hugging her tightly, just as happy to have her back. But he sensed there was something wrong with the animal. She was shaking uncontrollably and started struggling in his arms and meowing frantically, obviously trying to get away. It was clear she was scared and Henry couldn't say he blamed her, the streets during the night was starting to get to him, but as he was about to find out, his cat had a much more valid reason to be scared.

Suddenly, Henry heard some strange howling sounds, coming from the bushes, which was followed by three figures bursting out and knocking Henry off of his feet. When he recovered, he stood up couldn't believe what he saw. Standing in front of him were the Wolfy Kids: Howler, Rip and Kevin. He didn't know them, but the sight of them was enough send shivers down on his spine and step back in horror. Apparently, his parents were wrong. Monsters DID exist. He forgot about everything and just wanted to wanted to run straight home and hide under his blanket, but then he heard Lily's terrified meow. He turned back to see Rip holding the cat by it's neck and she had a particularly hungry look on her face. That sight scared him more than the werewolf trio and his fear of losing his pet overcame both his fear for himself and his sense of rationality.

"Hey! Leave her alone!" he yelled as he rushed st them. The nighttime villains turned to him, a little startled because they didn't notice the boy at first and thought it must have been the PJ Masks again. But when they saw that it was only a young boy, they smirked to themselves which made Henry stop dead in his tracks. Rip gestured towards him with her head and her teammates grabbed him by his shoulders to hold him in one place. Rip then waved the poor cat in front of the terrified boy's teary face. "No!" he struggled to get out of their grip, but it was hopeless. They were too strong. Rip was about to devour it, but before she could, she felt something hitting her with enough force to knock her on her tail, which was more impressive than it sounded due to the enhanced strength her werewolf form gave her. When she came to, she saw that the cat was nowhere to be seen.

Seconds later, something dashed past her with superhuman speed and did the same thing to Kevin, freeing one of Henry's arms. When the boy saw this, he used all of his strength to break away from Howler. He was lucky because the second wolfy boy was so shocked at what just happened that he loosened his grip on Henry's arm and he managed to pull away. Howler noticed this instantly and tried to grab him again, but before he could reach him, the mysterious interloper knocked him down as well.

Howler looked up and saw one of the PJ Masks, Catboy staring down at him, holding the small tubby cat under on of his arms. But there was something strange about him. His costume looked different. His face was now entirely covered by his dark blue mask and he had two glowing blue lens covering his eyes which were tilted in the shape of a menacing glare. His tail was gone and he had red lines all over the costume. Howler did not really understand why, but this new appearance really unsettled him. Catboy now had an altogether different aura around him and his animal instincts made him feel like he was staring at a superior predator. A strange feeling that the other Wolfy Kids started to feel too.

The blue costumed boy turned to Henry and handed his pet to him. At first, the boy seemed confused, but he to the cat back and hugged her close to him.

"Thank you." he told the hero genuinely. Mad Cat nodded in acknowledgement.

"Run straight home. I'll handle this lot." he said. Henry just nodded and ran off. Rip, being a she-wolf, was not about to let her pray escape. She jumped past Mad Cat and attempted to follow them, but upon her second leap, she found something wrapped around her ankles, pulling her back and making her land on her stomach. She looked back and saw her legs being tied up with the hero's Super Cat Stripes. "Sit, _dog_." Mad Cat snarled through his teeth with venom. He then heard a growl from behind him and looked back to see Howler about to jump at him. The left side of Mad Cat's mouth curled up into a dark smile as he raised his other hand and shot another wave of stripes at the villain, then he used the force he jumped forward with to pull him towards himself and he stepped aside and let Howler crash straight into Rip.

As the two were rolling on the ground, moaning in pain, Mad Cat saw from the corner of his eyes that Kevin was up to something. It didn't take him long to realize that he was going to use his sonic howl on him, but he figured out a countermeasure even faster. He simply ran up to him and delivered a healthy punch to his throat, which caused him to double over, grabbing his neck to try and ease the pain. Mad Cat then looked up and noticed an empty trash container next to a lamp post. He smiled to himself. _'Just what I needed, taking out the trash.'_

He was about to tie them all up with his stripes and do just that, but while he focused on Kevin, he didn't notice that the other two had recovered and seemed pretty pissed off. Before he could wrap Kevin up, he found himself blown away by a sonic howl from the other two and he was smashed against the trash container. Grabbing the back of his head in pain, he stood up and watched Howler and Rip helping Kevin up and then all three of them turning to face him.

 _'Well, so much for divide and conquer.'_ he thought bitterly. The villains quickly surrounded him. They must have thought that they can easily beat him three-on-one. The situation reminded him of his training session at HQ a few days ago. There was one significant difference however. The drones he practiced on attacked separately. The Wolfy Kids on the other hand had teamwork as one of their biggest strengths. So waiting for them to make the first move is not going to end well. Mad Cat quickly deduced that the best course of action would be the most surprising one and he was the one to make the first move by rushing at Kevin.

Fortunately, this had the desired effect. They didn't expect him to attack first and Kevin was still weakened from the last attack. Mad Cat overpowered him easily and sent him back on the ground. However, while he was busy with him, the other two jumped on his back. With an angry growl, he placed his hands and knees on the ground and yelled "Super Cat Jump!" he then pushed himself away from the ground with all his might and managed to push himself into the air with just enough force to shake them off of himself.

With both Howler and Rip thrown off balance momentarily, he turned back to Kevin, hoping he managed to weaken him enough for his plan to work. He ran around the werewolf boy and tied him up with his stripes, then pulled on them so hard that it made Kevin spin around in one place. He got so dizzy that he didn't even see Mad Cat running at him and kicking him so hard that he flew back against the trash container, knocking him out.

He then turned back to the other two, just in time to avoid a bite directed at his arm from Howler. He pulled his arm back and with the same force, pushed it back right into his face. The punch knocked Howler back and Mad Cat then kicked him in the stomach and activated his Super Cat Speed. He grabbed Howler by the neck and rushed towards the trash container with him, slamming his head against it at super speed, knocking him out as well.

Now there was only Rip left, but upon turning around, he did not see her anywhere. He looked all around to find her, but his sight was not the first sense to locate her. Mad Cat suddenly felt a sharp pain in his shoulder. Rip had bit him. This was the last straw. Acting on instinct, he smashed his head into hers as hard as he could and that made her let go and back away. He then grabbed her by the throat and threw her against the container. She was about to stand up, but Mad Cat walked up to her, grabbed her and tossed her into it, before doing the same to the other two members of the pack, throwing them on top of her, then slammed the container shut.

With that taken care of, he turned to examine his shoulder. Thankfully, the wound was not so deep to draw blood and with his enhanced healing, he was sure to recover completely by the end of the night. But there was a bigger reason to worry. Wolves are not ones to let a prey go easily. And with Rip getting a taste of him, she was not going to give up until she's hunted him down. Connor scoffed under the mask. Just what he needed. It was the first night of his new superhero career and it looked like he's already made himself an arch-enemy.

Well, at least he knew his new tactic against the nighttime villains is going to be effective. But still, his first victory as Mad Cat was bittersweet. After all, he beat the Wolfy Kids and if there was one group of villains who didn't deserve this aggression, it was them. After all, they were just slaves to their animalistic nature that surfaced during the night. _'Kind of like me.'_ he thought sadly, but he quickly shook this sudden feeling of remorse away. He vowed that he'll come back to free them in the morning, but for now, he had a mission to complete. The PJ Masks HQ was just a few blocks away.

 **Well this was it.**

 **Like I keep saying, Season 2 hasn't aired in my country yet, so I apologize for anything I got wrong about the Wolfy Kids. Still, I think this was a good little action scene. And next time, we'll see one with Mad Cat's former teammates. I mean it this time. Stay tuned.**

 **Don't forget, keep reading, keep reviewing and keep staying wonderful.**

 **But especially the reviewing part. Reviews make me happy. :)**

 **Later!**


	9. Cat Burglar

**Here it is! The one chapter I was waiting for the most! I hope you will have as much fun reading it as I had writing it!**

 **I'm so exited for you to get started that I don't even want to do a long Author's Note, so let's just get to it!**

 **Chapter 9: Cat Burglar**

Here it was. The all too familiar building of the PJ Masks HQ towering in front of him as a proud reminder of the heroes watching over the city during the night and a warning to every fiendish villain out there that of they want to mess with the day of others, they will be there to stop them. Just yesterday, Connor used to be part of this legacy. But now, he stared up at the structure with blazing fury. To him the PJ Masks were nothing more than failures. Failures who caused him to become what he is in just one day.

But on the other hand, he couldn't help but feel grateful to the so called 'heroes' they opened his eyes and made him see that the city needs to be cleansed of them. They made him something that was better than them. They made him realize the hero he must become and this city really needs. And maybe, by coming here tonight, he was taking another step to becoming one by facing his past as a PJ Mask and closing it down behind himself. Either way, he came here for salvaging parts for the wrecked lab so maybe it would be better to just get this over with.

Not wanting to waste anymore time, he headed straight for the entrance. The heroes used to have a palmprint scanner on the entrance at the side of HQ, but the villains managed to get past that way too many times with copies of the heroes' prints. So they replaced it with a more simple security code based lock. Catboy suggested that they change the code every Monday and since tonight was a Friday night, chances are the code was still the same. Though, after Romeo's kidnapping of him, they might have changed it, just to be safe. He hoped not because in that case, he would trigger HQ's alarm system and then not only could he kiss those spare parts goodbye, but also would have to face his former teammates a lot sooner then he would have preferred.

"Well, here goes nothing." Mad Cat said as he typed in the code, "1127". It was the date of Amaya's birthday, which was coming up this weekend. He knew this all too well, he prepared like crazy for it, looking for a gift and even helping her parents with organizing the party before the... accident that lead to this whole madness. Mad Cat shook his head in a vain attempt to get that suddenly re-emerged memory out of it. That wasn't important anymore. What was important was that the code worked and the entrance door was open.

Mad Cat was relieved by this at first, but upon entrance the first thing he saw was the Gekko-Mobile, which triggered even more memories within him. He grasped his to try and get his mind straight. Honestly, this shouldn't have come as a surprise. Just one day ago, he was still Catboy, the leader of the PJ Masks. It was only natural he would get overwhelmed by memories by coming back here so soon. But that was in the past and this is the present he should be focusing on. With one last glance at the vehicle, he managed to clear his head - at least for the time being - and instead, headed for the elevators and made his way up to the middle level where his old baseroom was. He should be able to get all the components he needed there.

On his way up, he started thinking about a way to stop these memories from coming back and messing with his head. He was no longer a PJ Mask. He hated the PJ Masks. The time he spent with them shouldn't affect him like this. But in the end, he knew that the time he spent as the heroes' leader won't be just forgotten with a snap of fingers. And being sentimental was the last thing he needed right now. His brainstorming came to an end when reached the room of the former Catboy and he was greeted with a sight that not only caught by total surprise, but also messed up all of his plans for tonight. In front of him, about to enter the elevator he just walked out of was a PJ Drone that looked just as surprised as him when it saw him. Mad Cat could barely restrain himself from smacking his forehead. How could he have forgotten about the PJ Drones?

The drone in question analyzed Mad Cat and due to the mask that covered the whole of his face, it did not recognize him. It's expression of white eyed blank stare turned into one of red eyed anger as it gazed upon the intruder and triggered the alarm system that all drones had remote access to.

 _'Aww, shoot.'_

* * *

Greg was still in Amaya's room, sitting on her friend's bed who has finally fallen asleep. She was leaning against his shoulder and snoring slightly as he was staring out the window at the nighttime sky. Their parents have already allowed him to spend the night there as they all saw how positively Greg's presence affected Amaya, which she greatly needed after the events of last week.

Glancing down at the girl, Greg smiled upon noticing how peaceful she looked while she slept. A welcome change compared to her behavior from today. He knew it will take a terrible amount of time for both of them to cope with what happened to Connor, but at least they have taken the first step.

Suddenly, Greg felt Amaya twitch against his shoulder and heard her slightly whimper. He looked at her and quickly figured out she must be having a bad dream. Unsure of what to do, he reached around her head and started gently stroking her hair while holding her tightly. That seemed to do the trick as Amaya instantly calmed down and snuggled into his shoulder, causing Greg to slightly blush. This was something he should have seen coming. Last night's events are going to haunt their dreams for a while, but before he could contemplate this further, his wristband started beeping.

Greg's eyes widened. Someone was breaking into HQ again? Just one night later? He looked back down at Amaya. He wasn't sure if he should wake her up, but the sharp sound of the alarm was followed Amaya's device following suit, which did it for him.

"Hmmm..." Amaya groaned as she woke up and rubbed her eyes. "What's going on?" Greg sighed. The timing was really bad. Amaya looked down at her wristband and gasped in shock. "Greg someone is breaking into HQ!" she exclaimed. Greg wasn't sure what to think. But maybe Amaya rested enough and some work will get their minds off of the tragedy that plagued their lives.

"PJ Masks, we're on our way..."

"INTO THE NIGHT TO SAVE THE DAY!"

* * *

Gekko didn't envy any nighttime villain who was so shameful to invade HQ just one night after losing Catboy, because he knew Owlette won't go easy on them. Good thing she didn't have his strength, otherwise this night would end pretty ugly. Little did he know at the time, that was going to happen anyway.

"Who do you think it is this time?" Owlette asked when they finally arrived at HQ.

"Definitely not Romeo. I doubt he'll show his face again for a while after... last night." Gekko answered after a small halt, he had to choose his words carefully. Owlette looked down in sorrow for a moment, before nodding.

"Right. It could be Night Ninja. His successful heist of the painting could have made him bolder." Owlette theorized once they reached the elevators.

"If that's the case, this won't take long." Gekko replied with a small smile. "He's not that good." Owlette gave him a small glare, reminding him this wasn't the time. Gekko just turned away and decided to just enter his elevator and go up to the central room, but when he arrived, he realized that his last statement was not accurate.

The room was littered with the remains of the security PJ Drones which have been completely dismantled. None of their known villains was so skilled. In fact, the only time they've seen something like this was when they came back to check on Connor and saw him practicing in the same manner.

Suddenly, they heard noises from the left side of the room and turned to see a figure rummaging in a closet, throwing smaller things out as if looking for something specific. He apparently found it as he pulled out the parts of a transmitter antenna that they were planning to install into one of HQ's ears for wider computer access over the town. He then put the parts into a sports bag hanging on his shoulder. Apparently, he didn't notice them.

"Hey!" Owlette shouted to him. The figure froze for a moment, but then he slowly turned around to face the two heroes. Gekko and Owlette stepped back in horror. The figure staring back at them was like a ghost came back to haunt them. Because he was looking exactly like Catboy. He had the Super Cat Suit on, but it was slightly modified with a full-face mask with blue lens over is eyes. The tail was missing and the costume had red lines all over it.

Owlette had no idea how to react. Here was a boy wearing the Catboy costume, apparently robbing HQ. But she soon found the feeling fitting the situation: anger. Not even 24 hours after Connor's death and someone is already misusing the Catboy identity. It angered her beyond all reasons. Whoever this guy was, he is going to pay.

"Gekko, get more drones up here!" she ordered and her tone told him he better comply. Be pressed a button on his wristband and immediately more security drones emerged from the floor and surrendered the burglar.

"We've got you surrounded. Give us those components back and take that costume off!" Owlette ordered. Mad Cat of course had other things in mind. Given his powers, his mind worked faster than other people's and he quickly figured something out. He started vibrating his limbs at super speed and the heroes noticed electricity forming around his body. Owlette's eyes widened as he realized what he was up to.

Mad Cat jumped into the air and landed on all fours, stomping and punching the floor, sending a huge wave of electricity all throughout HQ. Owlette could barely grab Gekko in time to raise him into the air and help him avoid the electric shock, which caused the drones around them overload and explode and the whole HQ to go dark.

"Gasping Gekkos!" Gekko exclaimed as Owlette lowered him back on the ground. "He fried the electric systems of the whole HQ!" Mad Cat smirked under his mask in satisfaction. A smile which quickly left his face, when he realized this meant that he also sealed the exit of HQ. Shoot, he didn't think this through. He had to find another way out. He's already collected most off the equipment he needed anyway. Except for the monitor, the heroes didn't have a spare one that fitted Romeo's computer and he had no idea where he was supposed to get that bloody thing.

Nevertheless, it was now time to get out of here. And he already had an idea how, he remembered that they used to have a backup generator at the bottom floor. He activated his Super Cat Speed and tried to rush downstairs. Unknown to him, Owlette managed to see him move with her Owl Eyes and stopped him from leaving with a wave of Owl Wing Wind. Mad Cat got back to his feet and growled when he saw Owlette blocking his way. With no other way, he headed upstairs to Olwette's baseroom instead. Owlette watched him leave with a glare than headed to the closet he looted and pulled out a flashlight which she then tossed to Gekko.

"Go downstairs and power up the backup generator! I'll keep him busy." she said, then took after Mad Cat without even waiting for Gekko to reply.

Upon arriving to the top floor, the first thing he saw was a few more wrecked PJ Drones, around the badly damaged Owl Glider. Since their sole task was to repair the vehicle, they didn't join in HQ's defense when he first got in and must have been caught in the electric shock he caused earlier. That meant that the PJ Drones have all been neutralized too. Ine less problem to worry about. But that relief was short lived when Owlette caught up with him.

He looked behind himself and saw the bird themed heroine reaching for his shoulder. She clearly thought she had the upper hand with her Owl Eyes. Mad Cat smirked to himself. She was in for a surprise because his lens were not just for show. One of the nifty things he found in Romeo's blueprints was night goggles. LIA only found enough components in the wreckage for the lens but this were more than enough. He reached for Owlette's arm and threw her over his shoulder.

If she was stunned by this even momentarily, she did not show it. She got back on her feet only to find Mad Cat gone. She couldn't spot him as she looked around even with her Owl Eyes. But he made his presence known when he rushed into her at full speed, sending her on the ground. When she tried to get up, Mad Cat grabbed her from behind and put her in a headlock. Owlette collected all her strength and managed to bend forward enough to launch him over her shoulder, then pushed him away from herself with Owl Wing Wind.

Just then her communicator beeped.

"Owlette, good news! I've started up the backup generator!" and just when he said that, the whole HQ was lightened just as it was before.

"Nice work!" Owlette praised. "Now get to the computer and shut down all escape rou..." but before she could finish, Mad Cat rushed into her again, sending her back on the ground. He then looked up and saw that the electric systems must be malfunctioning after the restart, because a small, circular door leading up to the top of the totem pole was open. Knowing that Gekko guarded the exit at the bottom, he decided to take his chances and jumped through it with Super Cat Jump.

"Owlette, are you there?!" Gekko panicked upon hearing the strange noises. Owlette got up and answered.

"I'm fine. Go to the computer and keep in touch." she ordered and followed Mad Cat to the top.

 _'Great!'_ Mad Cat fumed in his head. _'How will I get out of this?!'_ He couldn't help but curse himself. He knew it was a mistake coming here after such a short time. Not only had he revealed his existence to the PJ Masks, but by breaking into their base, stealing valuable equipment and possessing the super cat powers, he had almost certainly put himself at the top of the heroes' hit list.

This theory have been seemed to be correct, when he saw Owlette emerge from the gate that led to the top of HQ. Though, he probably shouldn't jump into conclusions. It was obvious they won't let someone get away with their stolen equipments. Regardless, she seemed pretty pissed off. He let out a slight, almost inaudible chuckle. Even though he preferred running, since he had a talent for it, looks like was no longer an option. It was highly unlikely he will get out of this without a fight.

The two eyed each other for a few moments. Owlette had a hard time proceeding what she saw. Mad Cat on the other hand had the upper hand, because while Owlette was simply brainstorming about who he could be, he was already preparing himself for the confrontation mentally.

Finally, Owlette broke the silence. "You have something that belongs to us." she firmly stated. Mad Cat remained silent for a while, before taking the bag off of his shoulder and tossing it to the ground.

"You want it back?" he asked in a soft, whispering, taunting manner. "Come get it back." he challenged. Owlette narrowed her eyes. So much for diplomacy. She wasn't actually referring to the stolen equipment, but the Super Cat Costume, but in the end she decided to get everything back.

She flew for the bag, but before she could reach it, Mad Cat grabbed her legs and used his super speed to spin her around in the air, before tossing her away. She landed roughly on her side and slid back against the edge of the totem pole. Mad Cat tried to take advantage of the situation, grabbed the bag and made a run for the entrance back to HQ, but Owlette managed to stop him. While she was still very dizzy from the spinning, she saw the boy and sent a huge wave of Owl Wing Wind towards his direction, which blew him away from the door. She then reached for her communicator.

"Gekko, seal the door to the roof of HQ." she ordered. The green hero replied with a "got it" before fulfilling the order. As Owlette's sight returned to normal, she saw Mad Cat getting back to his feet. "No escape now." Mad Cat growled and put the bag down.

"The hard way, it is." he said as he activated his super cat speed and charged at the bird themed heroine. Owlette dodged, by launching herself into the air with Owl Wing Wind.

"Super Owl Feathers!" she cried as she launched the solid feathers at the boy with the intention of trapping him, but he was faster.

"Super Cat Jump!" he used his jump powers to jump across the giant feathers that flew towards him and reached Owlette up in the air. He then managed to grab one of the feathers and swung it towards the heroine. Owlette didn't have time to react before the heavy feather hit her with enough force to send her crashing towards the roof.

Mad Cat then turned towards the spot where she was lying and placed his feet together for a heavy blow as he descended towards her. Owlette saw what he was about to do, and managed to roll out of his way just in time to avoid him landing in her stomach with both of his feet. Mad Cat growled and raised his left foot to step down on Owlette's head, but she grabbed his foot before it struck.

She then got an idea, she flew up in the air and took him up with her. Mad Cat was momentarily shocked by this, but he soon regained his composure. He activated his Super Cat Stripes and shoot them towards the ear of the owl head which served as the top floor of HQ. He wrapped them around it and tried to pull himself away from Owlette, but the girl was stronger than she seemed. He then got another idea. He unwrapped some of his stripes from the building and shot them towards Owlette. The stripes wrapped around the girl's neck, who choked and let go of his leg to try and get the stripes off of her. In full control of his body once more, Mad Cat pulled himself back to HQ's roof. As he landed, he turned all of his stripes towards Owlette, wrapping her up completely and pulling her towards the roof. The girl, who was still busy trying to get out of the stripes wasn't prepared for this, Mad Cat pulled her down with ease.

The next thing, Owlette knew, she crashed hard against HQ's roof again. Mad Cat felt some strange satisfaction from the sight of seeing her crashing like this for the first time since he could remember. The only thing that ruined it was that he knew this didn't hurt as much as what he went through. He pulled back his stripes and walked up to Owlette who was still lying on the ground, moaning in pain.

With one last, dark smile towards her, he picked up the bag containing the stolen electronics and started thinking of a way to get down from the pole. He quickly theorized that using the same trick he used for frying HQ's electric systems earlier would work on the sealed door that lead back inside the totem pole. He headed for the door, but to his surprise, Owlette wasn't done yet.

The winged heroine somehow managed to get back on her feet and launched a Super Owl Feather that struck into the roof right in front of Mad Cat, just before he reached the door. Huffing in annoyance, he turned around to face her once more.

"Up for round 2?" he snarled through his mask, to which Owlette replied with a furious scowl. She had never felt so angry before and she wanted to teach this insolent intruder a lesson. If her powers aren't enough against him, then skill will have to do it.

Without warning, she used an ounce of Owl Wing Wind to give herself a push, launching herself right at Mad Cat. This managed to catch him off guard, as Owlette grabbed his shoulders and threw him hard against the ear of the totem pole. But that didn't throw him off for long.

He quickly pulled himself together and rushed at her, this time, without his Super Cat Speed. Owlette raised a fist to counter whatever he was planning, but as soon as he reached her and she swung her fist to strike, Mad Cat dropped to his knees and threw his head back. He slid right under Owlette's arm and got behind her, where he grabbed her cape and threw her all the way across the roof.

Owlette landed against the ear on the other side of the pole, but she managed to gain control of herself mid-air, so upon landing, she used another wave of Owl Wing Wind to fly straight at Mad Cat. But this time, he was prepared for this. He jumped into the air and landed straight on the heroine's back, sending her to the ground once more. Due to the velocity of her flight, she didn't have time to react, but she still had some fight left in her.

She used another wave of wind to launch herself away from the roof and throw Mad Cat off of her, which succeeded. She then landed on her feet and turned around, only to see her opponent attacking again. He charged at her and raised his right leg, aiming a kick towards her head. Owlette raised an arm to block, but right after that, he changed the direction of the attacking limb and brought it down on her foot with full force. Owlette couldn't handle the pain anymore and let out a yell as she collapsed to the ground, grasping her agonizing foot after Mad Cat stepped off of it. Then, he spun around on his left leg and delivered a kick to the heroine's head, sending her to the ground right next to where he dropped the bag and it looked like she finally passed out for good.

Mad Cat scoffed at the girl. Did she seriously believe she could take on him on hand-to-hand? Back when he was still Catboy, he organized all of the heroes' training sessions. There was no way she could beat him that way. Her best would not be enough. He walked next to her to take the bag and finally take his leave. But then, he felt something swipe his feet from under him. He hit the ground face first and was about to get up quickly, but then he felt something on the back of his head, which sent it crashing hard against the roof. He growled as he grabbed his head with one hand. That was a cheap move!

Owlette then rolled him on his back and grabbed his neck to force him on the ground. "Who are you?!" she demanded in anger. Even though he struggled to answer due to the firm grip on his throat, he did manage to utter something, but not what she wanted to hear.

"You will find out soon enough." he choked. Owlette's glare hardened, as did her hold on Mad Cat's throat.

"Don't make me madder than I already am!" she warned making the boy glare right back at her under his mask.

"Mad? You don't know the meaning of the word." he then pulled both of his legs up and delivered a powerful kick into Owlette's stomach. This made her let go of his neck and collapse to the ground in pain, but she didn't have time to process that, because she felt something wrapping around her neck, which turned out to be Mad Cat's legs. The boy put her in a headlock, then used his legs to throw Owlette over himself and slam her head hard against the roof.

The pain tolerance in Owlette's head seemed to have been pushed to it's limit by that point, because this proved to be the final blow. Her vision became blurry and she became very dizzy. She almost didn't feel Mad Cat grabbing her by the back of her neck and dragging her across the roof. But she did feel it when he lifted her up in the air. Her vision was still very blurry, but she could make it out that she was hanging over the edge of the totem pole. She saw the bottom of HQ and ground below her. Before she could even fathom what was happening, she heard a cold voice whispering in her ear without the slightest hint of emotion. "Now fly." Mad Cat then let go of her.

Though she was still quite shaken, Owlette managed to spread her cape wide open at halfway between the totem pole's top and the ground, which broke the fall and she safely floated to the ground. She tried getting back up, but all she managed to accomplish was using up the last of her energies. She quickly fell back on the ground and finally succumbed to unconsciousness.

* * *

Meanwhile Gekko was trying to get HQ's systems back to normal, when he suddenly heard one of the elevators coming down. This was strange, Owlette didn't report back in a while. If this was her, she probably would have, but if it wasn't...

Suspicious, Gekko activated his Super Gekko Camouflage and hacked into the elevator system to make it stop at the central baseroom. His suspicions were proven correct when he saw Mad Cat in the elevator, who was immediately alerted when the elevator, which was supposed to take him to the exit on the ground floor just stopped in the middle, seemingly by itself. He narrowed his eyes in suspicion.

"Cat Ears!" apparently, the PJ Masks - even former PJ Masks - all had very good perception skills, because he was also proven correct when he heard footsteps approaching him. _'Oh, Gekko. Ever so predictable.'_ he mused to himself. His mind started racing again, considering all the possible countermoves against whatever Gekko can throw at him, but ironically enough, this time, this made _him_ too slow, because Gekko simply walked up to him and lifted him into the air by his neck while he was still brainstorming.

Struggling to get out of Gekko's grip has proven vain, so Mad Cat decided to use his other new toy he created from Romeo's plans. He curled up his fingers and two set of glowing, blue claws have been released from his costume, which he then jammed into Gekko's arm. The green suited hero yelled out in pain and released the intruder. Rubbing his wounds, he stared back at Mad Cat and found himself shocked at the new upgrade he made to the Catboy suit.

"Cat claws?" he asked in a mix of horror and wonder. Mad Cat smirked under his mask.

"Neat, huh? Romeo tech. At least that megalomaniacal moron was good for something. And that's not the only thing they can do." he boasted as he knelt down and placed his claws on the floor, then proceeded to pull them across it in Gekko's direction, causing a bunch of sparks to fly towards him. Gekko tried to shield his eyes, but he did exactly what Mad Cat wanted. He gave him time to use his super speed and get out of Gekko's sight. When Gekko looked again, he was nowhere to be seen. He didn't even get the chance to look for him, as he ran across the room and hit him, then proceeded to do the same again and again.

"Super Gekko Shields!" he yelled, summoning the green shields on his arms and raising them to his sides to protect himself. But Mat Cat was smarter than that he ceased his rushing at Gekko and hid instead. Gekko started circling around, trying to find him.

"So you work with Romeo!" he accused. Mad Cat rolled his eyes.

"Oh, please! I don't team up with idiotic villains. I'm the new hero in town! The one this town really needs!" he replied from his hiding spot.

"Oh, yeah? Last time I checked, heroes don't rob other heroes!" Mad Cat didn't respond to this. Technically, the equipment he took was his just as much as theirs, but he decided to play along if they didn't know he was Connor. It might have a few advantages. "What did you do to Owlette?" Gekko demanded. If this guy hurt her, he might just forget he was supposed to be the hero in this situatuion..

"Pretty bird had a flight to catch. But don't worry, she landed safely." Mad Cat taunted. Gekko narrowed his eyes.

"If you so much as..." he tried to threaten, but his opponent interrupted him.

"Thanks for the talk, scaly, that was all I needed." Gekko frowned in confusion, but he soon understood. Mad Cat turned on the Cat Car's remote control on his wristband and turned the vehicle to face Gekko while he was busy talking.

"Super Gekko Shield this." Mad Cat growled as he shot a few hairballs from the car at him. Gekko managed to defect the first one, but it hit his shield with such a force that it knocked him off balance and the others sent him crashing into the wall. He still had enough energy to look up and see Mad Cat approaching him and grabbing his head. "Sweet dreams, scaly." He mused, then slammed his head into the wall, knocking him out cold.

"Well, that was fun, but now I have to go." he said as he walked to the computer and undid Gekko's hacking, making the elevator operational again. He then made his way down to the exit and rushed off into the night, but if he took a few seconds to look back, he might have noticed a familiar looking white insect observing him from behind the totem pole.

* * *

 **So that was it! The big showdown between Mad Cat and Owlette that I have been advertising for a long time now. I hope it met your expectations. I actually had that bit written like two months ago. I just had to write the chapter around it so that's how this was finished so quickly after the last chapter.**

 **Next time, Connor faces another person from his past who finds themselves growing fascinated by his personality change. Who is it? Well, I guess the last bit of this chapter and the title of the next one will make that obvious.**

 **Anyway, keep reading, keep reviewing and keep staying wonderful. :)**

 **See you next time for: Chapter 10: Dance in the Moonlight.**


	10. Dance in the Moonlight

**AN: Welcome back to Mad Cat, my wonderful audience! And when I say wonderful, I MEAN it! We're past 3000 views and with 48 reviews, this is my second most successful story in that regard! You guys are amazing! And I will continue to write this with the hopes of meeting your expectations.**

 **I know it took longer than usual, but university has started and I don't know how often I will be able to update, but I will try my best. Until then, enjoy this chapter about Mad Cat's first meeting Luna Girl, which will make more sense if you have seen the episode "Catboy's Cloudy Crisis".**

* * *

 **Chapter 10: Dance in the Moonlight**

Knowledge is power. That is something Luna Girl knew all too well. And if there was one thing she liked more than power, it was easily obtainable power. Though they say all power has it's price, when you have a swarm of moths with human level intelligence you can use for gathering information, knowledge was in fact power easily obtained. There was nothing going on in this city that she didn't know about. And naturally, the subject that she had her moths spy on the most was the PJ Masks.

It was useful to know of the heroes' every step, so she can plan counter attacks or just simply evade them when she was planning something. Even though the possibilities have been getting fewer and fewer for her recently. Nothing interesting was going on in the city, nothing fancy was there for her to steal. So she had her moths spy on HQ, but even that was getting difficult because of those bothersome PJ Drones they've installed lately. Her movements have been so reduced that she couldn't even remember her last encounter with the PJ Masks, so it seemed knowledge wasn't enough anymore.

And as you might imagine, when you're a nighttime villain, you see a lot of strange stuff. Her Luna Magnet, her Luna Board and her moths weren't exactly mundane things either and she has seen even weirder things ever since she started. When you've been in the nighttime villain business for as long as she has been, your sense of skepticism pretty much dies out. But despite everything she had seen and experienced during her career, what one of her moths reported to her just a few seconds ago sounded way too far fetched even for her to believe.

"So let me get this straight, Catboy, the same Catboy who died last night when Romeo's lab fell off a cliff somehow came back from the dead, beat up those furbags to save a daytime kid's cat, broke into HQ, mopped the floor with the PJ Pests and actually got away with stolen goods?" her moth only nodded in response. Luna Girl turned away from the insect to think through what she just heard. This was a lot to take in.

The way her moth described the battle it saw on the top of HQ sounded like it was absolutely brutal, moreover it didn't sound like Catboy at all. What could cause someone to fall so far away from his former self? She had, of course heard of what happened to Catboy almost a month ago, but she never would have imagined it can lead to this.

But the more she thought about it, the less sense it made. And she found herself growing skeptical about something in a very long time. There was no way the person her moth saw was the same Catboy who battled her alongside PJ Masks frequently. Maybe it was just a new nighttime villain in town, but if it was, then how did he get his hands on Catboy's powers? And if he was a nighttime villain, why would he bother to save some dumb daytime kid from the wolfies? Maybe he was related to the boy, or it could have been that he just claimed that part of the city his territory and he beat them up for invading. That kid could have just happened to stumble upon them coincidentally.

Then again, it could have been that it really was Catboy who decided to cut ties with the PJ Masks and up his game against the nighttime villains. The fact that he saved a civilian and his pet would certainly imply that. Either way, this wasn't good for her. If this was another villain in the city, that meant more competition and she already had enough of that. And if this was actually Catboy, then her job was about to get a lot more dangerous. She has to investigate this further.

"Go and search the place Romeo's lab fell into." she told the moth. She had her doubts about this new nighttime player being Catboy, but she had no other lead. The insect's eyes widened upon hearing the order. That boy just beat three nighttime villains and two PJ Masks into submission. Who knows what will he do to just one small Luna Moth. Luna Girl rolled her eyes with a groan.

"Make sure he doesn't see you and you will be fine. Now go!" she ordered again, this time more firmly. The moth shrank back and flew off to do as it was told. Luna Girl then sighed to herself and turned to look up at the moon, which always calmed her when she was upset or nervous. Though she was never one to lose her composure, she just couldn't find a way out of her agitation this time.

It seemed things were about to get more interesting around here, albeit not in a good way.

* * *

Owlette's eyes shot wide open as she sprang up into a sitting position. The last thing she remembered was fighting that copycat who broke into HQ and losing, then being thrown off the top of HQ, which of course didn't end up hurting her due to her flying powers, but the beating she took from the intruder hurt enough on it's own.

She looked around and saw that she wasn't at the same place where she passed before HQ, but she was actually inside, sitting on a bed with two PJ Drones standing beside her. She then spotted Gekko standing at the computer in the center of the room. He looked like he was deep in thoughts.

"Gekko!" Owlette cried out as she tried to stand up and go over to him, only for her head to be hit with a splitting headache. She grabbed her head and sat back down. Gekko turned around to see her struggling and ran over to her to help her.

"Easy now. You need to rest." he told her as he gently pushed her back into a lying position. The situation was rather familiar. Just a few days ago, she told this same thing to Connor and treated him the same way. If this wasn't tragic irony, he couldn't imagine what was. "But it's not so bad. Just a few bruises. They will heal on their own. Shouldn't take more than a day or two even without our powers." he tried to be reassuring, but when he looked at her expression, he knew it was not working.

"Gekko... Where is he?" It was clear to both of them what she meant. Gekko decided to be as blunt as possible and just spit it out.

"He got away." he stated, frustrated with himself that he couldn't stop him and apparently, Owlette felt the same way. She punched the table in anger. "Don't worry. I did an inventory control after I brought you in. He only took some spare components we've had for HQ's generator and the transmitter antenna we've been planning to install. Though, I have no idea what he wanted those for?" he explained as he handed an aspirin and a glass of water to Owlette. The girl quickly took the medication and slammed the glass down on her bed.

"Do you think that's what I'm concerned about?" Owlette asked, a little more snappishly than she had intended. "Didn't you see it? He was wearing the Catboy suit. Connor's suit! What's worse, he defiled it by what he turned it into!" Gekko saw this was getting out of hand and knew he can only calm Owlette down by matching her firmness.

"Owlette!" he said as he tightly gripped both of her hands. "Stop it! I know how you feel! I had my fair share of hits from him too! And if you think you're the only one who's mad because of the suit, you are not! But ranting about it won't do us any good!" Deep down, Owlette knew he was right, but she wasn't in a mental state to just back down.

"I want this guy caught, Gekko." she growled into his face.

"And you think I don't? But this time, we couldn't. All we can do is prepare for the next time we meet him to make sure this night won't get repeated." the green costumed boy countered, leaning closer to Owlette's face with matching emotions, because quite frankly he was getting tired of the girl's hard-headed attitude. "Now get back on the bed before I have one of the drones sedate you." he ordered. Owlette leaned back in wide eyed shock. She was not expecting that, but she clearly saw that Gekko meant what he said. She quickly got over it and glared back at him.

"You're overstepping your boundaries, Gekko." she snarled. With Catboy... gone, she became the leader of the PJ Masks and even though there were only two of them now, insubordination was still insubordination.

"Maybe, but as your friend, I also don't want to see you ruin yourself, so please, lie back." Gekko pleaded with a much softer tone and expression and perhaps this was what finally convinced Owlette to give in.

"Fine." she said with a sigh as she laid back on the bed, but Gekko could make it out of her voice that she wasn't at all happy about it.

"Thank you." he replied and walked back to the computer. Though Owlette knew he wanted her to rest, she couldn't help but be curious about what he was doing.

"What are you up to?" she asked, on a warmer tone this time, trying to ease the tension between them.

"I'm watching over the security footages. All saved footage was erased when he caused a blackout, but I managed to get the recording back to work just in time to record your little duel on the roof." he replied. Owlette raised a brow.

"Did I look that good getting my butt kicked up there?" she asked dryly, causing Gekko to roll his eyes.

"Very funny, Owlette. Although, besides the "getting my butt kicked" part, the rest of the sentence is spot on. You did great up there." he praised, but Owlette saw it differently.

"Did you see the part of the footage where he dropped me off the roof already?" she asked.

"You lasted longer than I did." he added sorriwfully as he watched Mad Cat on the computer scene fighting Owlette. "Night Ninja on steroids wouldn't be this skillful." he complimented in what almost sounded like amazement. "Who is this guy?"

"Someone who stole Catboy's identity, broke into HQ and robbed us." Owlette told him firmly. "There's no reason to admire him, Gekko. He's just another nighttime villain."

"He clearly doesn't see himself as such. He told me he's the hero this city needs." Gekko replied. Owlette clenched her fists with a disgusted expression.

"Hero, my wings. What kind of hero fights other heroes instead of villains? Or steals the identity of a dead hero for that matter?" she growled to herself. Gekko didn't answer. He saw no reason to continue this argument. Instead, he went back to the computers.

"Anyway, I'm analyzing his moves and scan them into the PJ Drones so we can train against them. I'm pretty sure he has plenty more, but right now, there's nothing else we can do." he explained. Owlette sighed in disappointment upon hearing that. They can't just sit here licking their wounds. There has to be something else they can do. She turned her head to see Gekko working at the computer and it gave her an idea.

"Gekko, can you make a physical profile of our visitor?" she asked.

"Sure, why?" Gekko replied after copying the data into the drones .

"And does HQ have access to the archives of our school?" This second question made him understand.

"You want me to compare his physical profile with the ones in the school's archives." It was not a question. He was quite sure. Owlette nodded.

"Yes. Every boy under 5th grade. That might get us to him. Can you do that?"

"Sure can, but it will take a while. I'm pretty sure it won't be done tonight." Gekko replied as he typed in the data required to start the search. "In the meantime, I think we should head home now. It's getting very late and we should have some actual rest. It's a big day tomorrow." Owlette was taken aback a bit. In the midst of all the chaos that happened lately, she's completely forgotten about what day it is tomorrow. Just one day before her birthday. The city's Annual Winter Greeting Festival, which was held on the last Saturday of November.

This festival was one of the few times during the year when mass amounts of people went out to the streets during the night. And as the city's protectors, it was their duty to make sure no villain tried anything. But this night is going to be more difficult than the others. Their parents - like almost every other in the city - would take them to the festival and it would be almost impossible to sneak away unnoticed if something happened.

Owlette shook her head. They'll cross that bridge once they get there. For now, Gekko was right. It was time to call it a night.

"Okay, but I think you'll have to carry me back." she said, finally feeling the aftermath of her battle with Mad Cat taking it's effect on her. Gekko was right once again, she shouldn't be jumping around for the next few days.

"Hey, works for me." Gekko replied teasingly, making his bird themed colleague shoot him a glare, which was effectively ruined by the ghost of a smile forming on her lips.

* * *

It was almost midnight by the time Mad Cat got back to the lab. Upon entering, he clapped his hands and the lights came on. LIA suggested they shut down the lab's power while he's away to spare energy. And speaking of LIA...

"Welcome back, Mad Cat. I presume your mission was successful." greeted the mechanical voice. The cat costumed boy turned back into Connor and bitter frown was visible on his face.

"Only partly. I got the transmitter antenna and the generator parts but I couldn't find a new monitor for the computer." he told the feminine robot as he emptied his bag onto the table. LIA however did not seem particularly disappointed.

"Splendid! I shall get to installing the new antenna and fixing the main generator immediately. And I may know a suitable replacement for the monitor, but first let's get this done." it was about take the components, but before it could, Connor stopped it.

"Before you go, I have something extra for you." he reached back into the bag and pulled out two mechanical legs he ripped off of a PJ Drone. LIA's remained silent for a few moments, but then her expression changed into happy eyes, which was the first time Connor saw the machine display any emotion.

"I am deeply grateful you remembered my request." it said, taking the legs and putting them down on the table. "Allow me to return the gesture." LIA then spread it's arms and Connor raised an eyebrow when he heard some strange noises coming out of the robot's body. But he was even more weirded out when he heard LIA "ding " and saw it's chest open up. From inside, a plate emerged with two well fried fishes and a glass of water on it. It was a bizarre sight, but Connor was impressed nevertheless and also happy to see food for the first time in hours.

"While you were gone, I took the liberty to scout the surrounding area and discovered parts of a river flowing through the caverns, which will serve as a perfect food source. Unfortunately, I didn't find anything else growing in the area that is suitable for human consumption, so this will have to do. As for the water, it is from the river, but it is 100% filtered." Connor took the plate with a grateful look, but couldn't help but find the situation funny in a way. The Catboy eating fish. Figures.

"Thank you." he said genuinely. Ever since last night, this was the first time he felt something other than anger. It was good to take a break from it. LIA replied with another happy face.

"Don't mention it. Now I will get to..." the robot reached for the legs it's partner brought, but suddenly, it came to a complete halt and it's expression abruptly changed to alarmed, which Connor noticed.

"What's wrong?" LIA turned around and gazed up into the upper parts of the lab with it's expression returning to normal.

"I'm detecting the signs of a third, unauthorized lifeform in here, Mad Cat." Connor looked up in shock. How could this be? Who could have found this place already?

"Who is it? Is it Romeo coming to reclaim his lab? Is it the PJ Masks? Did they follow me here?" LIA held up a hand in front of her face to silence him.

"One moment, please." it said, before floatimg off to the spot where the readings came from. Connor didn't see exactly what was going on, but suddenly he heard the voice of a vacuum cleaner and some inaudible sounds that sounded strangely familiar. LIA then floated back to him and Connor was surprised to see the spot in LIA's middle part which served him food just seconds ago was replaced with a glass wall and inside it, he saw a Luna Moth repeatedly crashing against it in a desperate attempt to escape.

"Intruder apprehended." the robot reported simply. Connor was fairly impressed with how swift and effective LIA was with everything it did, but right now, all he could show was an angry scowl as he figured the situation out.

"Luna Girl!" he growled, causing LIA's expression to turn into a question mark.

"Luna Girl? It appears your visual sensors are malfunctioning, Mad Cat. This insect has nothing lunar about it and my scans show that it's a male." Connor rolled his eyes. Just when he thought LIA was becoming easier to work with.

"Thank you, LIA, but that's not what I meant. This moth belongs to Luna Girl. She sent it to spy on us." he told it. The robot seemed content with the explanation.

"Understood. Shall I begin termination process?" LIA asked, alarming the moth inside it, which then looked up at Connor frantically shaking it's head and waving around with it's limbs. While Connor felt no pity for the creature, he suddenly got an idea.

"No, LIA." he replied. "I think I have a better idea. For now, keep this moth contained and start fixing the lab. See me when you're done."

"Affirmative." LIA said, picking up the legs from the table and floated off to put them on, before carrying out the orders. Connor then sat down to eat his meal, with the idea of his next move already forming in his mind.

* * *

Patience was never one of Luna Girl's strengths. Her moths knew this. They didn't want to keep her waiting, especially when they were supposed to bring her something she was really eager to get. And right now, what she wanted the most is to know who the new masked super kid in the city was. And the delay of the moth she sent to spy on him was making her angrier with every passing second.

It was almost 4 am. It was almost morning, which means she'll has to leave soon. And the idea of leaving one of her moths behind for a whole day didn't sit well with her. Who knows what kind of troubles would the creature get into? Not to mention without the information she needed on the new Catboy, she had no idea how to prepare for him if they met next night. Sometimes she felt like being a nighttime villain was more trouble than it worth.

The rest of her moths were floating a few steps away from her, while she was pacing on the top of a roof in frustration. They've rarely seen her so angry and they didn't dare to interrupt her. They just silently urged their missing fellow moth to hurry up. To their and their master's relief, the insect did show up in a few seconds. It was flying towards Luna Girl at an unusually fast pace and when it finally reached her, it looked rather frightened. But the villainess ignored that for now.

"Where have you been?! It's almost dawning! You know we have to get out of here before sunrise and..." surprisingly, the moth didn't wait for her to finish her rant this time. Instead, it started to ramble and wave it's wings around in a hectic way. Luna Girl usually understood the moths, but even she had no idea what the insect was on about.

"Slow down! I don't get it!" she said, but it was of no effect. The moth kept on rambling and it turned away from her to look around, as if searching for something. That was when the villain noticed something flashing with a yellow light on it's back. It was small, but she still managed to notice it. She grabbed the moth - which finally made it shut up - and pulled it closer to her face.

"What is this?" she asked no one in particular, but someone answered her regardless.

"It's a tracking device." Startled, Luna Girl turned around to see Mad Cat standing right in front of her. She took a step back in shock and pulled out her Luna Magnet, but Mad Cat raised a leg and kicked it out of her hand, sending it into the air. He was about to jump up for it, but before he could, Luna Girl grabbed his leg and throw him to the ground.

Mad Cat got up just in time to see her catch the magnet and point it at him with a triumphant smile on her face. The boy was glad his face was fully covered, because his new mask kept Luna Girl from the satisfaction of seeing him utterly stunned by what she just did.

 _'Okay, I know it's cliché, but I can't think of anything that would better describe what I'm feeling right now: I didn't see that coming.'_ Mad Cat thought as he slowly got back on his feet. Luna Girl eyed him for a while, trying to decide what to make of him.

"So you're the new Catboy." she spoke up abruptly. "Well, at least you've improved the look of the costume." Mad Cat glared at her.

"The name is Mad Cat. Now tell me why did you sent that little pest to spy on me?" Luna Girl quickly saw that he was very easy to anger. She smirked. She may have just found her new favorite playmate.

"Oh, a little moth told me there was a new villain in town and I wanted to see him for myself."

Villain. That word was like a trigger that launched Mad Cat charging straight at her, not caring about the Luna Magnet at all. Luna Girl could have trapped him with her weapon easily. But she felt something inside herself that she couldn't explain which told her not to do it. She didn't know why, but instead of using the magnet, she simply sidestepped just in time to avoid the boy crashing into her, but in the process, their hands collided.

Mad Cat gripped on hers - not as firmly as he wanted to - and pulled her back, not very strongly, but with enough force for her to lose balance. But before she fell on the ground, Mad Cat caught her by her hip and she found her arms wrapping around his neck.

This rather questionable situation stunned them both. Needless to say, neither of them intended this outcome. Luna Girl was the first to snap out of it and attempted to push him away from herself and getting back on her feet at the same time. It worked, but Mad Cat regained his balance just in time to catch one of her hands to stop himself from falling over. Luna Girl was caught aught off guard and had to take a step back to prevent him from pulling her along. The end result was both of them stopping before each other in the exact same position with their interlocked hands being the only thing that kept them from falling back.

Reminding himself that this was supposed to be a fight, Mad Cat made his next move and attempted to punch her, but she caught his fist and managed to push it away to the side and somehow none of them remembered that their other hands were still interlocked.

Mad Cat attempted to step away, but he did it with such a force that he ended up pulling Luna Girl with himself. The villainess tried the same thing, only to get the same result. Their minds seemed to have come to a bizarre form of connection. When Mad Cat stepped left in an attempt to get away, Luna Girl followed. When Luna Girl stepped right, the boy did the same and before they knew it, they were basically waltzing on the roof without realizing it.

"Well..." Luna Girl started after some hesitation. "I have to admit, this isn't what I was expecting when my moth told me how you treat a girl, but... this is kind of nice." she admitted with a small smile that almost seemed genuine. This confused Mad Cat a bit, he was sure she was toying with him. But it didn't matter, he remembered what she said earlier..

"Don't call me a villain EVER again." he snarled without stopping the dance. "I'm a hero!"

"Are you now?" Luna Girl replied on an amused tone. "You know... Mad Cat... This isn't the first time my fight with a feline themed hero ended in such an unexpectedly pleasant way." Mad Cat leaned back in shock, which Luna Girl managed to clearly see even under the mask. Did she know?

Wether she did or not, that remained unknown for the time because their moment was interrupted by a fairly familiar howl. They both looked left and saw Rip jumping up from under the roof's edge and landing next to them. And she did not look happy.

Mad Cat then remembered that he forgot to knock her out along with the other two and since she managed to bite him, she came back to finish the hunt. _'Note to self: knock all villains out before locking them up next time.'_

Rip didn't even waste any time this time and lunged straight at Mad Cat, who pushed Luna Girl away and threw himself back to avoid the attack. Rip stopped herself on the roof with her claws and turned to face Mad Cat

For a moment, he forgot all about Luna Girl and jumped to attack. Rip did the same, already counting all the different ways she could hurt Mad Cat, she had trouble choosing. Mad Cat on the other hand decided on a more simple approach. He merely brought a fist forward and punched her straight in the forehead, sending her back against the edge of the roof.

He decided to end this quickly as he was pretty tired from her fight with Owlette and the other Wolfies earlier and ran towards her to knock her out, but once again, he fell the same thing as Owlette used. He acted too fast and didn't see what Rip was about to do. When he reached her, she grabbed him and pushed him off the roof.

Even though he panicked during the fall, he still thought up a solution pretty fast. He tried to shoot his Super Cat Stripes at the edge of the building and while he succeeded, which broke his fall a little, he failed to wrap them around it and they slid off of it. He fell into the alleyway between two buildings and yelled out in pain before attempting to pick himself up, but he fell back and passed out.

Rip landed next to her and smirked in satisfaction. She then jumped at him to finish the hunt for good, only to find herself completely frozen mid air. She managed to turn her eyes left and saw Luna Girl holding her Luna Magnet with a smirk similar to what she had on her face just seconds ago.

"Sorry, pup, this kitty is mine and I. Don't. Share." she said, then slammed Rip against the wall of the building, which knocked her out and fell into a trash container below her, which proceeded to shut itself from the impact.

Luna Girl then looked at the unconscious hero and knelt down to wrap one of his arms around her neck to help him stand up. She then put two fingers in her mouth and let out a sharp whistle, which summoned all of her moths to her. Looking up, she saw they were directly beneath the full moon. She aimed her magnet at it and fired and soon all of them were surrounded by the Luna ray and in the blink of an eye, they all disappeared into the ray which left the alleyway towards the heavenly body, leaving only the empty, silent alleyway behind it.

* * *

 **TBC!**

 **Until then, keep reading, keep reviewing and keep staying wonderful! ffmm, out!**


	11. Utter Lunacy!

**AN: Welcome back to Mad Cat! This chapter id going to focus entirely on Connor and Luna Girl and th relationship I am planning to build for them in this story.**

 **You might have noticed some ship teasing between them. As well as between Greg and Amaya in the previous chapters. Where am I going with these you may ask? I honestly don't know. I don't even know if there are going to be ships in the end, but for now, expect more of it.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

 **Chapter 11: Utter Lunacy!**

Connor was starting to get pretty fed up with constantly losing consciousness and waking up in the most inconvenient situations. But he had to admit, this awakening was by far the most comfortable one he had as of late. Even if his surroundings were unnerving him a little.

When he opened his eyes, he saw a black metal ceiling he's never seen before and as he slowly turned his head to look around, he found himself in a small room with the most basic of living conditions including the bed he was laying on, a chair next to it and a wardrobe. All in all, it looked like a hospital room.

And if waking up in a completely unknown place wasn't scary enough, he looked at the end of his bed and saw two Luna Moths sitting on it. This made the last bit of his drowsiness leave him completely and he jumped back against the headboard of the bed in shock. The insects reacted in the same way and flew off of the bed to head out the door, which Connor was pretty surprised to find was open.

He couldn't figure out why Luna Girl would bring him here if she just left the door open for him to escape, but at the moment, that was the least of his concerns. He got out of the bed and turned to see his reflection in the window, which showed him that he was not in his super suit. Connor gaped in horror. That confirmed his fears. Luna Girl knew he was Mad Cat. But as he stepped closer to the window, he was greeted by an even more stunning sight.

For a moment, he thought he was once again in his mind or just dreaming or maybe he just hit his head a little too frequently during the past few days, because there was no way what he saw was real. But no matter how hard he pinched himself or rubbed his eyes, he still saw the same. In plain sight outside the window, he saw planet Earth. And as he looked around more thoroughly, he saw a white, rocky surface under the window. He quickly put it together in his head.

"I see you're awake." he heard the all too familiar voice of Luna Girl behind him. He spun around on his heels and saw the villainess standing in the door with a couple of moths floating around her head. Connor reached for his wristband to activate his powers, only to find it gone. He turned back to glare at the white haired girl.

"Why did you bring me here?" he demanded, causing Luna Girl to smile. Connor glared at her harder. It was clear she was enjoying this.

"Why, I was just curious about this new Catboy." she mused. Connor growled at her. He was so mad that he was just one second away from charging at her, but when he remembered what happened with Rip before, he decided to restrain himself. Not to mention he was on her home field. Who knows what tricks she had up her sleeve.

"I told you not to call me that! My name is..."

"Yeah, yeah, Mad Cat. Sorry, my bad." she apologized as she held her hands up to calm him down. Connor eyed her carefully, still not trusting her. Luna Girl was pretty enigmatic, there was almost never a way to figure out what she's gonna do next.

"Anyway, you caused me quite an inconvenience tonight. Ever since I heard there was a new cat costumed hero running around, I just had to know if it was you or not, I couldn't focus on my job and I didn't have the time to steal anything." she told him on a surprisingly calm tone. Usually she was always whining and stomping if something didn't go her way. But now, she spoke like a hurt little girl who was trying to get the one who had offended her to apologize. Connor was baffled at how someone could be so self centered, but he had the perfect answer.

"Well, it didn't stop you from stealing my wristband, did it?!" he accused, Luna Girl's pout and sad voice didn't affect him in the slightest.

"In my defense, there was no telling what you would do with your powers when you learned that I brought you here. You might have done something that put both you and me in danger. We ARE in - what you call - "space" after all." the villain talked in rather confusing terms, but Connor was more surprised to hear her put him ahead of herself in the last sentence. Almost as if she was more concerned about his well being than her own.

"Well, maybe you shouldn't have brought me here in the first place! Come to think of it, where is here?" he then realized he just gave Luna Girl the perfect fuel for a quip. "Apart from the Moon, which is obvious. Since when do you have your own moon base?"

"One; I prefer the name "The Lunar Hall", thank you very much. Two; what, did you think only heroes can have a cool HQ? And three; would you have preferred if I left you in that alleyway for that howling plushie to rip you apart or just lie there with your injuries unattended?" she asked with her arms folded and shooting him a questioning look.

Her words triggered Connor's memories about Rip throwing him off the roof and passing out on the ground below. A little begrudgingly, he realized that Luna Girl was right and almost felt ashamed for snapping at her like that after what she did for him, but then he realized it was Luna Girl he was talking about. He looked back at her with the same bitter scowl.

"Are you telling me that you just saved life?" he asked incredulously.

"I sure did." Luna Girl replied proudly. "So what I believe you were trying to say, is thank you."

"Thank you?" Connor was dumbstruck. As if that will ever happen.

"You're welcome!" she said cheerfully. Connor rolled his eyes at her and turned away to lean his forehead against the window. Just when he thought his life couldn't spiral even more out of his control, here he was on the frigging moon, trapped in Luna Girl's own HQ and had no idea what she had planned with him.

"No." Connor said to himself, then turned back to Luna Girl so she can also hear it. "No. This can't be it. There has to be something more to it. Something in your interests." Luna Girl then switched back to her villainous mode and chuckled ominously.

"Of course there is. But I'll leave that for you to figure out. I like to add a bit of a mystery to my style. It's part of the charm."

"Charm is hardly the word I'd use." Connor snarled through his teeth, then extended his arm towards her with his palm open. "Now, my wristband, if you would be so kind. Before I lose my patience and get violent."

"I wouldn't recommend that. Remember what happened when you tried to get my Luna Magnet earlier?" Connor did remember. The girl easily wrestled him to the ground. As he replayed that moment several times in his head, it was becoming clearer and clearer that there was more to Luna Girl than meets the eye. And he found himself feeling a strange mix of fear and intrigue upon realizing this.

He was intrigued because if he wanted to be honest, he was curious what other things did she hide about herself and what would he find out if he played her little game. Maybe she was right; mystery WAS part of her charm. On the other hand, like he thought, there was more about her than meets the eye and there was nothing scarier than what you don't know. Her secrets could have also been dangerous and he could be sorry if he shrugged her off.

Connor realized that he shouldn't act all hot-headed again, especially without his powers, but there was no way he would let her see his unease. "Where. Is. My. Wristband?" he tried to sound intimidating, but Luna Girl wasn't frightened in the least.

"Oh, it's around here somewhere, but there's a little problem." she told him on a slow, mocking tone which Connor could tell she only used to taunt him. "I can't seem to remember where I put it." Despite what Connor thought, this wasn't a complete lie. She actually had one of her moths hide it around the Lunar Hall without her knowing the location. Keeping Connor away from it wasn't the point.

Of course, Connor thought she just said this to annoy him. "I will find it Luna Girl, and I will get out of here!" he declared.

"Oh, I have no doubt you will." she said, surprising him greatly. He could no longer contain his confusion when he heard that line. Luna Girl then decided to end this conversation and change topic. "But in the meantime..." she snapped her fingers and two moths flew in the door, carrying a plate with a glass of water and two sandwiches on it. "It's breakfast time."

Connor watched the insects put the plate down on his bed and turned back to Luna Girl with a questioning look.

"What? Would you prefer milk instead?" she chuckled. "It's not poisoned if that's what you're thinking. Why would I save your hide if I wanted to hurt you?"

Connor didn't want to admit it, but that actually was a good point. But he was still confused. Nothing that Luna Girl did or said during the last hours mad any sense to him. Not even as much as usual. However, any doubts and suspicions he had left were silenced by a grumble in his stomach. Luna Girl laughed when she heard this.

"Your stomach seems agree with me." Connor let out a sigh and finally decided to give in. He walked back to the bed and took one of the sandwiches, carefully examining it before taking a bite. To his surprise, it tasted delicious. Luna Girl saw it in his expression that he liked it.

"Well... How is it?" she asked as she sat down next to him. Despite it being a rhetorical question, she found that she enjoyed teasing him like that.

"It's..." she didn't want to compliment a villain, but he found a strange sense of honesty washing over him. "This is great!" he exclaimed in joy. Something that surprised him greatly. It sounded like his old self, something he thought was long gone. But he didn't show it. "What's in it?" Luna Girl chuckled at seeing him like this. There is no way she will ever find his Mad Cat persona intimidating now that she know he was behind that mask.

"I guess it's true what say, the way to someone's heart leads through the stomach." she said. Connor smiled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. What was happening to him?

"Nah. I'd say the way through the chest is faster." he said jokingly, even though he wanted to sound threatening.

"Ouch. When did you become so edgy?" she asked, laughing at his joke which surprised her. She wanted to get under his skin, to irritate him, yet he found herself enjoying his company. Connor frowned, he didn't want to talk about it so he tried to dodge the topic.

"When did you become such a friendly host?" he countered, waving the already half eaten sandwich in front of her face. Luna Girl lost count at how many times he made her laugh today.

"Point taken." she then snapped her fingers again and two more moths brought in another plate with the same content and placed it down on her lap.

The two ate in silence for a while. Luna Girl was trying to figure out what to do next. She broke through the shell Connor had built around himself after what happened to him and she was trying to figure him out. So far, she thought he was fun to be around, something she did not expect, but also didn't find bad. But his new self, this Mad Cat was far more entertaining.

Their dance last night still thrilled her when she remembered it. Mainly because she knew that deep inside, he wanted to hurt her, to cause her pain. And yet, he just rolled with it. Too bad that stupid Wolfy had to show up and ruin their time. Luna Girl never had this much fun during any of her skirmishes with the PJ Masks. She wanted to find out just how much fun this kitty is to play with. But first, she had a little test for him. Although, that can wait for now.

"So..." she started after they finished eating and the moths took away their plates. "I hear you're pretty down on luck lately. Crashing with the Owl Glider, being used as a guinea pig by Romeo, then falling down a cliff with his lab..." Connor looked at her with narrowed eyes.

"How do you know about these?" Luna Girl just waved him off.

"You want me to ruin by mysterious appeal by telling you?" though this should have been obvious. 'Moth spy network, duh!'

Connor looked down. His misfortune during the past month, his falling out with his teammates and his descent into becoming Mad Cat were not things he wanted to discuss with a villain. This sore topic ended up bringing back his bitter disposition.

"What's it to you?" he snapped at her, standing up and walking up to the window.

 _'Touched a nerve there.'_ Luna Girl thought with an evil smile. She walked up to him and grabbed his shoulders from behind. "I'm surprised you didn't run back to the PJ Pests." she whispered into his ear harshly. _'Let's see how far I can push you.'_

Connor's clenched his fists and pushed her away, glaring into her eyes. "I'm done with the PJ Masks!" Luna Girl laughed in amusement.

"How much good do you think you can do on your own? You three could barley stop me when you were a team!"

"I handled the Wolfy Kids all on my own! I'm pretty sure I can handle you!" Connor yelled in her face.

"Need I remind you that I had to save you from one of them?" she replied smugly. Connor opened his mouth to respond, but nothing came out. She did have a point. While he did manage to hold his own against the trio and Owlette and come out on top, he also still had the tendency to rush into action without thinking and last night, he almost paid the price for it.

All things considered, maybe he really should consider the possibility of working with partners again. But that was a matter for another time. Right now, he needed to get his wristband back and leave this place. Which was not going to happen until Luna Girl kept pestering him. He needs to shake her off somehow. And he didn't need to think for long, because the solution came from the villainess herself.

Luna Girl saw that her words were actually getting to him and she knew she couldn't rile him up further, so she decided to lay off for a while. And suddenly, she remembered something that was about to happen near her base and she could use it to soften this mad cat up a little.

"Oh, come on, I'm just messing with you." she said as she punched him in the shoulder. "Hey, you wanna know what I do when I'm feeling down?" she asked out of nowhere. Connor snapped out of his thoughts from the sudden question.

"Thievery? Robbery? Burglary?" he guessed, causing Luna Girl to roll her eyes.

"That's three of the same thing!" she complained.

"Actually they're not. Thieving is snatching something away without the owner noticing, robbing is taking it away by force and burglary is breaking in to steal something." he corrected her. Instead of answering, Luna Girl just grabbed his hand and started pulling him out of the room.

They walked out to the corridors and Connor turned back to see the door to his room closing on their own. He looked at it in interest. They couldn't have been photocell doors becuase if they were, they would have been closed when he woke up. 'That means she's controlling the doors remotely. But how?' he wondered. If he found out how, he could explore this entire place, find his wristband and get away. But for now, he'd play along with whatever she had planned.

The pair soon arrived to a large circular room which had a bunch of computers in the middle and huge windows all around the walls, giving them a good view of the stars and the moon's surface around them. Connor noticed a bench in front of one of the windows and saw that that is where Luna Girl was leading him to. She pushed him down on the bench and sat down next to him.

"Watch this!" she told him and Connor noticed how she couldn't contain the excitement in her voice or on her expression. Whatever was about to happen was clearly a big deal if it managed to get her this giddy. If the situation was different, maybe Connor would have found it cute.

He turned his gaze at the window and within a second, he understood. The field they were looking at was soon filled with Luna Moths, much more than the amount that usually accompanied the villain. They were flying in from two sides and when they reached each other, they started to fly together into pairs and performing some marvelously graceful figures that looked even more stunning with the stars in the background and their large numbers.

"Wow!" was all Connor could say. This had to be the most beautiful sight he had ever seen. For a moment, he forgot all about all of his problems. No villains, no PJ Masks, no destroyed old life existed in his head. All he could see was this.

"In case you're wondering, this is not a mate selection ritual." Luna Girl explained. "Luna Moths are very affectionate creatures. They choose mates for life and they do this to display affection on a monthly basis. The best I can simplify it is as a date." all the while she explained this, she did not take her eyes off of the sight.

Connor looked over at her and saw something on her face that he never did nor did he ever expected to see. It was genuine happiness. No hint of malice or greed was visible on it. She was looking like an ordinary little girl who's parents came home on Christmas morning. It was almost like the look that Amaya always gave him.

The thought of his former friend was usually enough to ruin his mood, but this time, he was surprised to find that it wasn't. He turned back to the dancing moths and all of his negative feelings went away. He almost felt like his old self again, something he thought was impossible. The fact that it was Luna Girl of all people that made him feel like this was even more baffling.

But something still bothered him. "How do you know so much about them if they come from the moon?" he asked her.

"You could say that I have a... special connection to this place." she answered. Connor noticed that her expression dropped a little after she said that, so he decided to keep quiet. Instead he went back to enjoying the performance of the alien insects.

Luna Girl never had a problem with her nocturnal activities, but she was working during the night and she also needed sleep. That combined with the hypnotic dance of the moths started to make her feel drowsy and soon Connor felt something bump into his shoulder, which was Luna Girl, snoring and very much asleep.

Connor's expression turned from serene to serious. Now was the time. He put his right hand on the girl's left shoulder and used the other to support her head and very gently lowered her into a lying position on the bench. He then reached to his ear and found that Luna Girl overlooked something.

Connor fully expected that he would once have to face a villain who took his powers and he still wanted an advantage when he didn't have the costume. So he had a small communicator placed into his ear and it gave her connection to his new ally, LIA who was back at the lab on Earht. They have already installed the new transmitter, so he had no doubt he'll be able to contact the robot.

"LIA, are you there?" he spoke as he walked away from Luna Girl.

"Affirmative, Mad Cat. What do you require?" LIA spoke on the other end.

"I need you to give me an update on my current location."

"Certainly... Although..." there was a pause on her end before she continued. "I apologize, there seems to be a malfunction on my end. My readings say you are currently on... The Moon. That can't be right."

"Actually... Your readings are correct. I am on the moon in a base bulit by Luna Girl."

"Luna Girl?" LIA responded questioningly. It ran a quick refresh of it's database and found everything Romeo had on the female villain. It could only comment what it found about her with one line. "That is most inconvenient."

Connor chuckled. "Yeah, it is. And it gets worse. She took my wristband. I need your help to find it."

"What do you suggest?" Connor looked around and saw the computers in the center of the room, which gave him an idea.

"There are some computers here. If you could upload yourself here, you could monitor this entire place. Can you do that?"

"Affirmative. All I need is your exact coordinates, which I have now and an orbiting satellite nearby. Which I picked up..." LIA began searching for one and before Connor knew it, the monitors before him lit up with the familiar expression his mechanical companion. "...now."

Connor jumped in surprise upon seeing this, but he was happy LIA was here. "Geez, save it for the nighttime villains!" he complained. LIA could tell Connor was amused so merely gave him the happy eyes. "Anyway, stop goofing around and do what I called you here for!"

"One moment please, I'm exploring the network of this facility..." Connor waited impatiently, afraid that Luna Girl might wake up and stop him from escaping. Luckily, LIA worked faster than he knew. "Mad Cat, I have accessed the facility's security cameras and managed to locate the artifact. It is in a room not far from your position, along with several other valuable items."

"Must be vault for the things she stole." Connor thought out loud. "In that case it is probably locked." he turned back to LIA. "Unlock every door in the building." he ordered. "Also, download everything you can from the archive. Who knows what might be there."

"Affirmative. Anything else?"

"A way back to Earth would be nice." Connor said. "Can you find anything?"

"There is a teleport system built into this base's network. I've already managed override it. I can transport you back whenever you want."

Connor couldn't stop the massive grin that spread across his face. "Score one for Mad Cat." he was about to go to retrieve his power jewel and leave, but when he turned walk away, he noticed Luna Girl still sound asleep on the bench. A part of the old Catboy must have still been in there, because he got a sudden, bold idea that he simply couldn't resist once it was born.

* * *

Even though Luna Girl fell asleep on that hard, cold bench, she still felt pretty refreshed once she opened her eyes. Nothing beats a good day's sleep after a night full of villainy. She raised her hand to her eyes to rub the rest of the sleep out of it. Only to notice something strange. She felt that there was a piece of paper stuck on her hand, which she was pretty sure wasn't there when she fell asleep.

"What's this?" she asked herself as she picked it up and she saw that there was something written on it.

 _Dearest Luna Girl_

 _Thank you for your hospitality, the wonderful breakfast and the great show. I also thank you for passing out on me and giving me enough time to retrieve my wristband, hack into your computer system, override the teleport system and go back to Earth._

 _Hugs and kisses, Mad Cat_

 _P. S.: Merry Winter Greeting!_

Luna Girl's eyes widened. How did he manage to escape so fast? She fully expected him to do so, but not so soon. She wanted to play with him a little more before letting him get away, but he managed to outsmart her somehow. She angrily crumbled the paper and thew it away.

She was mad, but at the same time she was also pleased at this this turn of events. It looks like she underestimated Mad Cat. He was even more capable than she thought. In which case, he will make an even more challenging playmate. Luna Girl was thrilling with anticipation for their next meeting.

She wasn't going to be at the Winter Greeting Festival tonight, but now she just had to attend. She wasn't planning anything, but a couple of her moths have been whispering about Night Ninja making a move there. And if he will be there, Mad Cat will be too. And Luna Girl didn't like the idea of that wannabe ninja stealing her new opponent. He can have the PJ Masks, but Mad Cat was hers and Luna Girl doesn't share. A wicked smile spread across her face as she stared out on the window at Earth.

"Oh, this is gonna be fun!"

* * *

 **AN: Hope you guys enjoyed it!**

 **Next time on Mad Cat: It's time for the Winter Greeting Festival! What will happen there? Will Mad Cat and the PJ Masks meet again? And if yes, will their animosity keep them from fighting actual bad guys, or can they put aside their differences when they have to?**

 **Find out next time on Mad Cat!**

 **Until then, keep reading, keep reviewing and keep staying wonderful!**


	12. High Stakes

**AN: Hey, guys! Welcome back to Mad Cat. Sorry it took longer than usual. I've had much to study and I also had a little of a writer's block from my most hated kind. The one where I can't continue until I find that one word that would fit into the sentence and I just can't decide what word I should use. It's the most frustrating thing ever. But it's finally finished.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

 **Chapter 12: High Stakes**

It was around three in the afternoon. Amaya and Greg decided to head to the city park to check out what kind of programs they were setting up for the festival tonight. Next to the concerts, food stands and various entertainers which were around every year, what captured Amaya's attention the most was the man-made skating rink. Though it was cold, since December was just around the corner, ice wouldn't last on it's own, but it was just as beautiful like they were skating on a frozen lake. It opened early and several people were already occupying it. Amaya would have liked to go too, but she couldn't help but notice that only pairs were on the ice and she didn't want to stick out.

"You really like skating, don't you?" she heard Greg's voice ask, which mad her jump a little in surprise. She was so immersed with watchin the people skate that she didn't even noticed when he walked up to him. "Sorry, didn't mean to startle you." he aologized.

"It's ok." she assured him, turning her gaze back at the ice. "You're right. I love skating. Sometimes, I've even thought about becoming a professional when I'm older." she confessed.

"Cool!" Greg responded. "Then, wouldn't you like to go on ice?" he asked. Amaya looked down on the ground.

"I would, but everyone is skating in pairs and I don't have anyone to come with me." Greg noticed the sad undertone in her answer and instantly knew that he has to make her feel better.

"Well, you do have me." he told her as he put an arm around her shoulder. Amaya raised a brow.

"I thought you hated skating." It was true that Greg had become better at skating after they stopped Luna Girl from stealing Christmas last year, but he still didn't consider it his favorite outdoor activity. And while he wasn't a fan of it, he hated seeing Amaya sad even more. And if he had to skate with her to cheer her up, then he will skate all she wants.

"Hate is a little too harsh word to use. I'd rather check out that scone stand over there, but I wouldn't be able to sleep tonight if I was the only thing that kept you from skating." Amaya chuckled at that. In a weird way, she was deeply touched that Greg put her before his stomach.

"Well, tell you what, you come skating with me and I'll treat you to some scones. How does that sound?" Greg grinned like an idiot. Quality time with Amaya and free scone? He would have been a fool to say no to that.

"You got it!" he said before they ran off to the entrance of the ice ring. They quickly got themselves fitting skates and soon they were already riding the ice together. As expected, Amaya was the one who enjoyed it more and did it better. Maybe a little too much, becuase she kept pulling Greg with herself by the hand who was far less skillful at it and as a result, neither of them could enjoy the skating session as much as they usually would.

Oddly enough, they found that this didn't bother them in the slightest. They were both having fun even if they were doing it pretty clumsily. Greg was doing anything he could to help Amaya cope with Connor's absence a little easier. She was grateful, but knowing that this was the main reason he tried so hard was just reminding her of Connor even more. A hint of sadness overcame her face, which didn't go unnoticed by Greg.

"What's wrong?" he asked as they twirled around on the ice. Amaya wasn't sure if she should voice her concern, but ultimately, she did it anyway.

"Greg, are you..." the question she was about ask was not an easy one. "Are you just trying to help me deal with my grief?" Greg was taken aback by this.

"What do you mean?" despite the conversation they were having, they didn't stop their movements for a second.

"It's just... I know you don't like skating as I do and even last day, you pretty much spent all of your free time with me. Not once taking a break from doing something for yourself." When Greg didn't answer, she went on. "I mean... I appreciate it, but I know you're doing this because of what happened to Connor and knowing this, just keeps reminding me of him."

"Good." Greg stated bluntly. Amaya's eyes widened in surprise when she heard that.

"What?"

"I keep thinking about him too, as we both should. He was the closest friend we've ever had other than ourselves and we should never forget the times we had with him. As for only doing this to help you come to terms with it, well that's part of it too. But I think you're forgetting that next to Connor, you are my best friend and no matter what we are doing, I always have a great time with you. "he explained as he gently squeezed her hand.

Amaya just stared at him for a while. She ran everything he just said through her head and realized that he was right. Suddenly, the fact that he kept remembering Connor during the fun times she was having with Greg didn't sadden her anymore. She was actually happy. Happy to have both Connor's memory and Greg beside her.

"Thanks, Greg." she smiled at him softly. You always know what to say to make me feel better." Greg just shrugged.

"That's what friends are for." Amaya was about to pull him in for a hug, but something stopped her. Or rather, someone.

"Watch out, squirts! I'm coming through! Someone yelled as she bolted through between them, pushing them away from each other and sending them on the ground. They both looked up to see a slightly taller girl with very short light brown hair, wearing a blue coat and matching jeans and a similar helmet to their own with the slight difference of having a star on it. The girl was Maya. Amaya's 10 years old big sister. The similarity in their name was not coincidental as their mother was named May. Their parents considered themselves pretty funny people.

The two kids glared up at her. "Can't you be careful?" Amaya complained, making her sister laugh.

"Which part of "I'm coming through!" wasn't clear enough?" She then turned serious. "And like you're one to talk. Mom specifically said that you can only come out here if I came along to watch you guys and not even five minutes after we arrive, you ditch me!" she berated. Ever since Connor "disappeared", their parents weren't too keen on letting them roam around the town by themselves.

"We can take care of ourselves!" Amaya argued.

"You'll have to convince mom and dad, not me. Until then, you're stuck with me. So don't..." before she could finish, something bumped into her from behind, which made her lose balance and fall on her butt. She looked up to see Greg standing over her, sticking his tongue out. "Why you little..." she then suddenly lost sight of Greg, as well as everything else because her helmet was being turned around on her head, courtesy of Amaya. By the time she fixed her helmet and stood up, both kids were skating fast away from her.

Amaya and Greg skated up to the wall of the ice rink. When they saw Maya was about to catch up with them, they quickly split up. The older girl couldn't stop herself in time and crashed into the wall.

The younger kids skated up to each other and shared a high five, but their triumphant moment was short lived. Maya managed to hold onto the wall and found her balance again. She skated up to them from behind and grabbed them both by their waists, lifted them into the air. "Gotcha!"

"Cool Chameleons!" Greg gasped as he hanged from under Maya's arm. "How are you so strong?" The girl shot him a smirk.

"You just remember that, kid." she said as she skated up to the exit of the rink. She handed her and the kid's rented skates back to the owner, before turning to see them looking down on the ground with pretty long faces. They weren't happy that the older girl ruined their fun. Feeling the tiniest amount of guilt and compassion rise in her from the looks on their faces, she wrapped her arms around their shoulders and pulled them with her.

"Come on, squirts. I'll treat you to some scones and hot chocolate. It's the best way to get the bitter taste of defeat out of your mouth." That did the trick. Maya just went from being a bullying, party pooping older sister to the coolest big sis in the world.

* * *

For the first time in weeks, Connor felt like something was finally going like he wanted it to. The data they got from Luna Girl's computer was massive. She didn't just have everything on the PJ Masks and the nighttime villains, but also on pretty much everything going on in town. It was also thanks to Luna Girl that he learned of a famous jewel called the "Winter Star" arriving in town and it will be on display at the Winter Greeting Festival. He couldn't believe he just thanked something to Luna Girl. Even if it was only in his head, it sounded preposterous.

"Okay, what exactly is this "Winter Star" thing?" he asked LIA who was standing next to him, projecting the content of the data they downloaded into a fine three dimensional hologram to the floor in front of them. This quality more than made up for the lack of new monitor for Romeo's computer. The jewel in question was a white crystal which had a form remarkably similar to a snowflake.

"The Winter Star. An extremely rare formation of crystal discovered in the Arctic in 1927. Origin: Unknown, although it's shape implies quality craftsmanship. Worth: 120 million US Dollars."

"Hold on, does this mean that there used to be a civilization on the Arctic?" Connor interrupted in wonder.

"A possibility, though it seems more likely that the jewel was lost by a previous explorer who perished there." LIA explained. Connor looked back at the projection. As a superhero, he really wasn't in the position to question anything. LIA continued.

"According to reports, the jewel will be on display at the Winter Greeting Festival and it will be constantly on the move all around the city on a parade float. It is currently stored at the town hall."

"Sounds like something a nighttime villain might be interested in." Connor noted.

"Affirmative, though it's not everything." LIA said. "Previous owners of the jewel reported feeling an extreme cold upon approaching it. And attempts of touching it with bare hands resulted in extreme frostbites including two cases where the damaged fingers had to be amputated." Connor cringed at hearing that.

"So, I suppose there is a strict "Look, don't touch" rule to it."

"If you prefer your arms with ten usable digits." LIA replied. Connor raised his brow at the machine. Was that snark?

"Well, good thing we only have to protect it then." Connor acknowledged, trying to sound calm, but he couldn't keep the nervousness that this frightening revelation about the Winter Star caused in him out of his voice. Especially in the presence of LIA, who had the ability to scan the emotions of those around it.

"Affirmative. According to Luna Girl's personal logs, the villain you call Night Ninja has made preparations to steal the artifact." the robotic assistant told Connor. Connor had trouble wrapping his mind around why would Luna Girl make a note of what Night Ninja wanted to steal in her logs - maybe she just saw this as an opportunity to have someone else do the dirty work before she stole it herself - but to be honest, he didn't really care either. He was more concerned about the crystal itself. He didn't want to admit it, but LIA's reports of it scared him.

"Well, if it will come to that, we'll have one less villain to worry about. I'm pretty sure you can't pull off kung-fu moves in the night if one of your arms freezes off." he tried to sound casual, but once again he was not going to fool an A. I. Even if he did, there was one thing LIA still didn't tell him.

"There is one more thing you need to know." the machine said with a very serious, warning tone and Connor already knew he's not going to like what he's about to hear.

"Saved the best for last, didn't you." he chuckled weakly. "Let's hear it, then."

"There is a legend surrounding this jewel. According to reports, when it was first discovered, they found several frozen skeletons around it and also a formation of ice that seemed like they came straight from the jewel, as if they came out of it. Also, the ice around it was much colder than any other part of the region." Despite his skin color, Connor nearly went completely pale when he heard that. "If the theory about a civilization existing on the Arctic before it was discovered is correct, not only would this explain what happened to it, but it would give an unnerving insight into the jewels hidden abilities."

"LIA, if this is your attempt at reassuring me, you're not doing a good job." he told it dryly. The expression on LIA's monitor turned blank.

"I made no mention of reassurance. Like I said, this is merely a legend, but in a world where superpowered six years olds are running around, it has to be taken into consideration."

"I'm seven years old." Connor countered. LIA chose to ignore that.

"If the jewel is disturbed by someone unaware of it's capabilities, it could have disastrous results." Connor hung his head, turning away from the machine. Never before were the stakes so high during his missions. If what LIA said is true, then not only the day, but the entire city was at risk. He couldn't allow that crystal to fall into the wrong hands. Or even touched by the wrong hands as apparently the thing could send the entire region back to the ice age at the slightest of disturbances. But still, he couldn't shake off his nervousness just yet.

"What if we're just overreacting?" he asked as he turned back to LIA. "Like you said, if this is just a legend. If it was true, don't you think it would have gone off already at some point after being carried so much?"

"The jewel was always handled with the utmost care. It's owners and the workers who carried it were afraid it was so fragile that it would break. This saved them." LIA explained. Connor started to realize that he's not going to squirm his way out of this. LIA was right. If he chickened out, who would protect the jewel and the city from a possible catastrophe. The PJ Masks? He scoffed at the thought. He wouldn't trust them with a pebble, let alone a jewel that can turn an entire continent into a frozen wasteland.

He let out an exasperated sigh as a sudden realization dawned upon him. He was thinking way too much like old self. Back when the old Connor was consumed by his new personality, he promised himself that he will never again let fear overcome him. So he will have to get himself together and get over his worries. The risks and the odds never stopped him before and he was not about to let that start now. He slowly turned back to LIA and he only had one question.

"When will they bring the crystal out?"

* * *

Back at the park, Greg and Amaya were having such a good time that they completely lost their track of time. After Maya treated them to their promised sweets, the three of them ended up wandering the park and the festival setting and they tried everything they found, including the winter themed rides, like the giant snowflake designed ferris wheel and the bumper cars with Greg and Amaya sitting in one and Maya sitting in one separately. They held a little contest between themselves to find out who can bump the other more and the two younger kids won.

This didn't end at the bumper cars. Maya was very competitive, but ironically enough, her younger sister was the one person whom she had never beaten before at anything. Later, they found themselves in an organized snowball fight event held for kids, using artificial snow and Amaya and Greg once again destroyed her older sister. At one point, Greg was trying to take on her by himself, only to be pulled back by Amaya, declaring that this was a family matter and he either helped her or stayed out of the way.

Greg was a little concerned about this behavior. He has never seen Amaya like this before, except when that Catboy wannabe broke into HQ last night. He couldn't help but wonder if her determination to take him down had anything to do with the competitive sibling rivalry between her and Maya. Whatever way it was, he didn't like it.

At the moment, it was about to get 20:30 and they were just leaving the ice rink, where the scheduled ice hockey match between kids just ended. Once again, Amaya and Maya were on different teams, once again Amaya's side won and once again Maya was not too happy about it. To add insult to injury, Amaya scored three goals while Maya scored none.

"Don't worry, sis. Maybe next time." Amaya said reassuringly, but Greg noticed a smug smile on her face. Maya growled as she took off her skates to put her shoes back on.

"One of these days, I'm going to wipe that look off your face." she said, before her phone started ringing.

"But not today." Amaya whispered, leaning towards Greg, causing the blond boy to chuckle. Maya spoke for a few seconds and thought they didn't hear the conversation, both of the younger children could tell she was talking to her parents.

"It was mom." Maya confirmed after she hung up. "She told me to get you two back to the house. We're about to set off for the town hall where the festival will begin."

"Wait, shouldn't I be going with my parents?" Greg asked.

"It's already sorted out. Your folks will go ahead and get us good spots. You'll be coming with us." Maya explained. "Now let's go. I want to grab something to eat before we head out." she the put her arms around their shoulders and gently pushed them towards the Park's exit.

"Hey, I can walk on my own." Greg complained.

"You be quiet squirt or you're going back under my armpit." Maya threatened which immediately silenced him. As the three walked out of the park, Amaya heard a familiar 'whooshing' sound and looked up to see a blue bolt dashing across the buildings next to them. As soon as she processed what she saw, she narrowed her eyes in contempt.

 _'He's here.'_ she thought. He signaled Greg to get behind Maya and leaned to whisper in his ear. "Find some excuse to go back to your house and get your pyjama. We just got some work for tonight."

* * *

 **AN: Thanks for reading it! There were still some things I wanted to include here, but I decided to save them for the next chapter.**

 **Next time, we'll learn wether Owlette and Mad Cat can swallow their pride if their interests require and get another (hopefully) nice little action scene when Night Ninja and his Ninjalinos also make their appearance at the festival.**

 **Stay tuned! Until then, keep reading, keep reviewing and keep staying wonderful! :)**


	13. Teeth-Clenched Teamwork

**AN: Sorry for the long wait, fellas. University has been a murder lately. In fact, since exam period is around the corner, I have no idea when I'll be able to come back, so I wanted to give you guys a treat this time. I was originally planning to do this as two separate chapters, but I decided to really push myself for I honestly can't tell, when I'll update again. And I think I succeeded because what you are about to read is my personal record when it comes to words. With 6,814, I can match an update from my friend, Bouken Dutch 2.0. That gives me a special kind of accomplishment.**

 **But this is not why you are here, aren't you? You are here for the next chapter and I won't keep you from it any longer.**

 **I hope you like it!**

* * *

 **Chapter 13: Teeth-Clenched Teamwork**

Amaya and Greg have been sitting on two sides of the backseat of the car of Amaya's parents, May and Roger, riding to the Winter Greeting Festival. Maya have been sitting between them and she couldn't help but notice the sudden change in her sister's mood. Amaya have been cheerful and happy all throughout the afternoon and now she was leaning against the car window, frowning and sulking about who knows what. She crawled closer to her little sister and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Hey, squirt. Who pissed in your cereal this evening?" she asked, trying to sound like her usual, casual self, but she couldn't keep her concern hidden in her voice.

"Maya!" her mother yelled back to her from the passenger seat disapprovingly. She did not like it when her oldest daughter talked in such a rude manner, even if she meant well.

"Sorry." Maya replied without any sign of caring, causing her mother to turn away with a sigh. Her only concern now was Amaya. She knew something was wrong and she wanted to know what. "In all seriousness though, what's bugging you?"

Amaya was so deep in her thoughts that she almost didn't hear her question. But even though she wished she didn't, it was clear. She couldn't share her superhero concerns with anyone except Greg, unless she wanted to reveal herself to someone as a first grade superhero, which she never considered before. But with Connor gone, the fact that she could only be one hundred percent herself was Greg was starting to eat away at her.

"It's no big deal." she replied eventually. After all, she couldn't say that an impostor took the place of her dead fellow superhero friend and maybe he was planning to cause trouble tonight at the festival and she may have to leave and try to stop him.

"I think it is if it made you all mopey so suddenly." Maya replied, not buying what her sister was telling her. "You never have mood swings like that, especially not when we're heading to a festival and it's your birthday tomorrow." Amaya was starting to get annoyed by her sister's nosiness. She turned to her with an angry frown.

"Well, maybe I don't feel festive tonight. Did that cross your mind?" Maya was shocked. Her little sister never snapped like that. Now she knew there was something wrong. But before she could voice her concern, their mother decided to end the argument.

"That's enough! All of you! One more word and we'll turn the car around." she threatened.

"Hey! I didn't even say..." Greg tried to protest before Maya slapped her hand over his mouth. She was not going to miss the festival because her sister was being moody. But still, her curiosity has been peaked. Something must have happened to Amaya between the time they got back from the park and when they got into the car to take off to the town hall. And she was going to find out.

"Don't think we're done with this conversation." she whispered to Amaya, who just rolled her eyes and went back to staring out the window.

* * *

Mad Cat jumped off of the last house on the street and ran to hide between the trees in the surrounding area of the Trabiscoville Town Hall. The building was in the middle of a park, not unlike the one around HQ. It wasn't just for the sake of looks either. With no other tall buildings around, people getting in from the top was very unlikely. But that shouldn't be a problem for someone with superpowers. And with the guards all attending the visitors, the Winter Star was an easy picking for someone Night Ninja.

Mad Cat took a look around. While the opening ceremony of the festival was still a few minutes away, people already started gathering around in the park. Spotting a potential thief in this crowd would not be easy. Come to think of it, staying out of the civillians' sight wouldn't be either. He'll have to be more careful than ever before. Maybe it would be better if he thought about it as a challenge rather than an obstacle. He did like challenges. Well, most of the time anyway.

He was looking for a way to get to the town hall unnoticed, when his eyes caught something he really wasn't expecting to see. Even though he probably should have. Suddenly, everything around him disappeared when his gaze fell upon a nearby lamp post with a missing person's poster on it. More importantly, his photo on said poster. It wasn't that close to him, but he could still read it.

 **Missing!**

 **Connor Alvarez**

 **Age: 7**

 **Last seen: November** **3**

 **Last known clothing: Dark teal jacket with white shirt underneath, light blue pants, and red sneakers with lime green shoelaces.**

 **Persons having any information please call Trabiscoville Police Department.**

A tidal wave of emotions washed over Connor as he read the poster and for a moment he felt like the biggest idiot in the world. He spent so much time feeling sorry for himself and stoking his anger towards his former friends that he completely forgot about the one thing about his old life that he still could care about: his parents.

Connor sunk to his knees and grabbed his head in shame. He couldn't even imagine the turmoil that he was causing them at the moment. And the worst thing was that he knew he could end their pain without any real effort by simply going home and this never even occurred to him. But no, he couldn't go home. He could never explain to his parents what happened to him during the past three weeks. And it was all because of the PJ Masks! If they listened to him during that night 3 weeks ago, none of this would have ever happened!

Mad Cat gritted his teeth together and stood up again, reminding himself that he had work to do. His main job was to secure the Winter Star, but he found a sudden desire for someone to come and attempt to steal it now. He could use someone to release his newly risen anger on. And if it turns out to be that arrogant jerk, Night Ninja or perhaps if the PJ Masks by any chance learn of the ninja's plan to steal it and try to interfere with his mission, well, all the better.

* * *

Amaya's family, plus Greg was walking through the park, lookin for the blond boys' parents who came early to secure good spots for all of them. The parents told the kids to keep their eyes open, but in such a big crowd, they were not going to spot anyone. Amaya still tried to look around for them, but all she managed to notice was Connor's missing poster on a nearby tree. But before she could get overwhelmed by emotions, Greg noticed this and put an arm around her shoulder to gently pull her away.

"Ah, there they are!" Amaya's father, Roger shouted to his family when he saw them. Greg looked into the direction he pointed at and sure enough, he noticed his parents sitting on a large picnic blanket on a hill, waving at them. Greg didn't waste any time and ran up to them, jumping into his father's arms.

"Hey, champ!" Greg's father, Chris greeted as he picked his son up and embraced him. "You had fun with the girls today?"

"As much as Maya let us." Greg told his father quietly, but apparently not quiet enough.

"I heard that, squirt!" Maya said from behind him. Greg looked down from his father's embrace and saw the other family have reached the spot as well and the 10 years old looked up at him with a very unamused look.

"Uh, dad, could you hold me for the rest of the night?" he nervously asked, earning a laugh from everyone present, except Maya. Chris put his son down and went to greet the other pair of adults. As they interacted, the kids settled down on the blanket.

"I see your parents made even their winter clothing reptile themed." Amaya said, noticing Chris' coat with alligators all over it and his mother's, June's hoodie jacket that resembled a frog's head. Greg's parents have been running an animal shelter for reptiles. It has been always obvious where he got his love for reptiles for.

"What can I say? Their bigger reptile nuts than I am." Greg answered sheepishly.

"And that's saying something." Maya snarked, making Greg roll his eyes and Amaya chuckle. "Speaking of parents, you think the Alvarezes are coming?" the two younger kids looked up at her with a hint of pain in their eyes. Their parents were also very good friends with each other to the point where they considered each other and extended family and It has become a tradition to always attend to the Winter Greeting Festival together. But this year, Connor's parents were likely to miss it due to understandable reasons.

"It was kind of a no brainer that they wouldn't." Amaya replied, annoyed that her sister brought the topic up.

"All I'm saying is that they could use a little break from all the stressing they went through this month." the older girl said with a shrug. Amaya's expression turned angry.

"With their only child missing, do you really expect them to enjoy themselves on a festival where they always attended with him and would only remind them of their pain?!" Greg inwardly sighed. All the efforts he made during the past few days to help Amaya recover were going out the window.

 _'Thanks a lot, Maya.'_

"How can you take Connor's de..." Amaya barely caught herself in time. The emotions were running wild and it was becoming harder to control herself. "...disappearance so casually?!" she yelled at her sister with soaked eyes. The squabble caught the attention of the parents nearby and when May noticed her younger daughter crying, she immediately rushed to her side.

"Sweetheart, what's wrong?" she asked as she knelt down and pulled her in for a hug. Amaya buried her head in her shoulder and let the tears flow, but she couldn't answer. She couldn't stop the sobs long enough for a reply. Her mother tried to soothe her by rubbing her back in small circles and looked up to see what she assumed what the source of her daughhter's distress was. She saw the missing poster of Connor that they passed earlier and sighed sadly as she cotinued to gently rock her daugherin her arms. While it did little to ease Amaya's pain, her crying did abate.

"G-Greg?" she sobbed. Her voice was muffled on her mother's shoulders, but she still understood. She motioned for the boy to come over and when he did, he put a hand on Amaya's shoulder and she quickly let go of the woman and threw herself into his arms.

"I got her." Greg told May who shot a grateful smile at him and went back to the other adults. Greg sat back on the blanket and Amaya snuggled into his shoulder. They sat in the exact same position as last night on her bed before HQ's alarm system interrupted them. Maya, seemingly guilty of what she said tried to reach out for her as well, but she backed away when Greg shot a nasty look towards her. He may have been four years younger, but Maya knew when she crossed a line so she didn't push it.

A few minutes passed in silence. Amaya thankfully calmed down enough to open her eyes and now all three of them were curiously looking at the stage that was being set up before the town hall. Their curiosity however turned to fright when they saw children dressed in 19th century farm clothes and quickly realized what was about to happen. The opening act of the Winter Greeting Festival was the same every year: a stage performance by kids around their age which reminded everyone in the city of the true purpose of the festival and why was "Winter Greeting" such a big deal in Tarabiscoville.

Amaya, Greg and Maya threw their heads back and let out three audible groans in sync. They knew this story by heart by now and quite frankly they were getting bored of it. Basically, Tarabiscoville used to be a small, farming community around 150 years ago. One season, the town had a terrible pest problem and insects ate much of the crob, which was the main food source for the town. Even worse, the winter that year was especially harsh. The people of the town barely made it through. But in the end, the harsh winter killed most of the insects and the town could go back to normal.

What happened next however, was something that peaked their interest a little more. Quite specifically, the interest of the two young superheroes. The Mayor of the city walked onto the stage and announced that a very special and extremely valuable jewel, called "The Winter Star" will be put on display and carried around the city as part of the events of this year's festival. Greg didn't think much of it at first, but Amaya's eyes shot up when she heard this. She glanced over to the adults and her sister who were still focused on the events on stage and pulled Greg away from them.

"Greg, this must be it!" she whispered to him, but Greg could notice the firm undertone in the sentence.

"This must be what?" he asked in confusion.

"The Winter Star!" Amaya snapped, frustrated that Greg wasn't getting the obvious. "That must be what he's after!" she didn't even notice how harsh her tone has gotten. Greg had his doubts.

"I don't know, Amaya. He didn't come across like a guy who would steal something just because it's shiny. Remember, he only took a few parts of equipment from HQ and left behind a bunch of stuff that was much more valuable." But Amaya wasn't having any of it.

"Do you have any other ideas about why has he come here?" she asked. Greg looked up in thought. She had a point, but still, it didn't make much sense to him. Amaya eventually got tired of his uncertainty. "You know what? Forget it! I'll deal with him myself!" she was about to walk away, but Greg grabbed her hand to pull her back.

"Are you out of your mind?! You can't transform right now! Someone will surely see you!" Amaya just stared back at him firmly and pulled her hand away, leaving the stunned boy behind.

"Just cover for me!" she ordered as she disappeared in the shadow of the trees. Greg let out an exhausted sigh. Amaya was acting way too reckless for her own good and it's going to bite her in the tail feathers sooner or later. And while he hated to admit it, Greg was secretly hoping it would be the former, because she needed to brought back to her senses ASAP and it seemed like he was not enough by himself to do that anymore.

"Oh, Connor. I could use some help, buddy." he lamented sadly as he walked back to the family group.

* * *

Amaya found herself a quiet bush where she could transform safely and when she was done, she peeked out with Owl Eyes to get a better look at the Town Hall building. Not only did she need a spot where she can enter without being seen, but she also had to find the Winter Star to protect it. While she had no idea where it was, she quickly came up with the best guess.

She recalled a time when her class went on a field trip to the Town Hall and Cameron managed to convince Connor and Greg to try and sneak into the storage room. Of course they were busted, mostly because - a secret she was keeping to this very day - she told their teacher about it and the three of them were sent back to the school bus until the end of the trip. She felt bad for her friends, but she didn't regret it. They would have gotten into much more trouble if they were caught trespassing there. And she never liked it when the boys were hanging out with Cameron anyway. She always thought he was a bad influence on them.

She looked back at the crowd and was happy to see that they were still focused on the show. And since the early winter sky was so dark, she was sure she can fly there without problem. But getting to the building was the lesser half of the problem. Getting in there, specifically in the storage room would be tricky.

But for the first time in a long time, luck seemed to be on her side, because upon landing on the building, she noticed a skylight close to her. Even more incredibly, the skylight was opening straight to the storage room! She never saw it before, of course, but it was pretty obvious from all the crates and the warehouse shelves she was seeing. She sighed in relief. It has been so long since something went the way she wanted it to that she almost forgot.

Owlette slowly descended into the storage room of the town hall. There were several wooden crates inside, so locating the Winter Star will not be easy. As she reached the floor, she looked around, wondering where should she start searching, but she quickly thought up a better solution. She didn't need to find the Winter Star, knowing that it was in this room was enough. She just had to wait for the thief to show up and stop him from stealing it.

So she did exactly that. She hid between two crates and activated her Owl Eyes, waiting for anyone who shouldn't be allowed near the crystal to arrive. She was silently hoping that one of the workers who were supposed to carry it outside would come sooner than anyone. That way, she could call mission successful without even doing anything.

But sadly this was not to be, as she heard the skylight of the room opening and saw the Catboy impostor lowering into the room using the Super Cat Stripes. Despite seeing this boy using Catboy's abilities before, it didn't anger her any less then when he used them to burglarize HQ last night. She lost any sense of rationality and left her hiding place to confront him.

Mad Cat turned on the night vision in his lens to see the crates better. While Luna Girl's data didn't say what was the id number of the crate the Winter Star was kept in, the little robot once again proved to be an invaluable ally. It made Connor a digital thermometer that was able to analyze it's environment and determine the exact temperature of everything within a 200 meters radius. All he needed to do was get in the center of the room and scan it. The coldest spot would definitely be the crystal.

A scan only required one second and it amazed Mad Cat how advanced this little machine was. According to the readings, the room's temperature was around 11 degrees celsius, which was marked with a light red color on the thermometer's screen. Cold spots would have been marked with blue, the colder, the darker. And he saw a spot that was so cold that it almost appeared as dark purple.

Connor gulped as he looked into the direction where the device located the crystal. It was in the corner of the room on his right on the top of two other crates. It's temperature was almost around -30 degrees. It only further strengthened his desire to stay away from it. And keep Night Ninja away from it as well. But that was not the only interesting thing the scanner showed.

He also saw two spots that were around the same temperature as human bodies. One of them was obviously his own, but there was another one and according to the readings, it was getting closer. Mad Cat narrowed his eyes, he wasn't alone. He waited for the other spot to get directly behind him and when it did, he spun around with lightning speed and delivered a kick that he wasn't certain where would land, but was a little surprised to see it landing in Owlette's stomach.

The bird themed superhero widened her eyes in pain as Mad Cat removed his leg from her stomach and she sunk to the ground with her hands grasping the place where it landed. Mad Cat stepped back and shot her a questioning look.

"What are you doing here?" he asked with barely concealed anger in his voice. Owlette glared right back at him as she slowly overcame the agony in her stomach and got back on her feet.

"I'm here to stop you from stealing the Winter Star!" she sneered back as she got into a defensive position, like she was expecting him to attack. In any other situation, he would have done that, but at the moment, he had more important things to worry about.

He let out a low chuckle that both confused and creeped Owlette out a little, which no matter how hard she tried, couldn't hide. Though, Mad Cat either didn't notice or didn't care.

"I have to admit I'm impressed. I didn't except you to know about the Winter Star." he said mockingly, which turned Owlette's expression back to a glare. "But you betted on the wrong horse. I have no intention of going anywhere near that thing and you shouldn't either."

"And you expect me to believe that after you broke into HQ, attacked us and stole from us?" Owlette demanded as she stepped up to him and pushed her face close to his. She didn't see through the lens, so she never saw Mad Cat rolling his eyes.

"You are free to believe whatever you want. I couldn't care less. Just stay away from the crystal. You have no idea what it's capable of!" Mad Cat warned sternly. Owlette was sure she was lying, but the way he said that last line raised her doubts. He almost sounded like he genuinely tried to warn her for her own sake. But then she remembered what this guy did to her last night. If he cared about her wellbeing, she wouldn't have dropped her off the top of HQ. She's not going to believe him a thing.

She then heard the beeping noise that Mad Cat's thermometer made while scanning the room. Owlette looked at the device in his hands and then back at him.

"What's that?" she questioned bitterly. Mad Cat was staring to lose his patience.

"Not that it's any of your business, but it's a digital thermometer." he surprised himself by answering her willingly, but he wanted to avoid a fight, at least for now. He knew tonight's confrontation with Night Ninja would be inevitable and no matter how confident he was in his abilities, he wasn't sure if he can handle two fights in such a short amount of time.

Owlette was no less surprised she got an answer from him, but it only raised her inability to believe Mad Cat. If he had a thermometer, he was no doubt looking for the Winter Star. While she didn't know what Mad Cat knew about it, it was conning knowledge that it was very cold due to being from the arctic. She glared at him.

"Well, if you don't want anything to do with the Winter Star, why are you searching for it?" Mad Cat has had enough. He turned away from her to keep looking for the crystal, but of course, Owlette wouldn't just leave it at that. She reached to take the scanner out of his hands, but Mad Cat was faster. He grabbed Owlette's hand and twisted it behind her back, making the red costumed girl collapse on her knees in pain. She tried to struggle but she immediately found herself paralyzed from both the pain in her wrist and the fear of what Mad Cat might be doing to it if she moved.

"Stay cool, bird girl." Mad Cat told her almost reassuringly. "Fly away before you get hurt and let a real hero handle this." Without realizing it, Mad Cat just hit a nerve that he really shouldn't have.

 _'A real hero?! You steal my dead friend's powers, defile his memory by using them for your wicked pleasure, break into our HQ to attack and steal from us and you're the REAL hero?!'_ Owlette raged in her mind. That did it, she saw red and forgot about the pain. She raised one of her knees off the floor as much as she could and kicked Mad Cat in the shin.

The cat costumed hero yelled out, letting go of her hand and grabbed his leg. Owlette took advantage of his momentary stun and grabbed him by the neck. He then slammed him against the crates behind her and raised a fist to punch him across the face. She was going to give him everything she got during their last encounter. And more for his Catboy impersonation.

But before she could deal out some justice, she noticed something alarming. The crate on top of two others started shaking from the impact and she saw that it was about to fall. Reluctantly, she let go of him and jumped back. Mad Cat looked up to see what scared her so much and had the same reaction upon spotting the crate already during mid fall. He barely had enough time to get away before it fell on top off him. Before both of them could collect themselves from what happened, the top of the crate fell off and the Winter Star itself rolled out of it.

Owlette's eyes widened when she noticed that the crystal was rolling towards Mad Cat. If he got his hands on it, he could easily get away with it with his super speed. But her fear turned into surprise when she saw that not only did Mad Cat not grab it, but when he noticed it rolling towards him, he hastily got out of it's way, almost like he was afraid of it.

She was so stunned by this that she didn't even try fly after the jewel to get it back and by the time she caught herself, it was to late. The rolling jewel was stopped when someone put a foot on it and the two rival heroes looked up to see Night Ninja standing at the door with at least a dozen of his minions behind him.

"Night Ninja!" they both exclaimed in unison. This caused them to briefly exchange a bitter look, but quickly turned back to the villain.

"Thanks for finding the Winter Star for me, PJ..." before he could finish, he turned from Owlette to Mad Cat and his expression turned puzzled. "Hey, you're not the kooky cat. Who are you?" Mad Cat allowed a smile to find it's way onto his face. Apparently Night Ninja wasn't as smart as Luna Girl to use his minions for gathering information.

He was probably still waiting for an answer from him and he decided to use that to his advantage. Instead of speaking, he rushed at him with his super speed to get the crystal back, but he underestimated his opponent. Night Ninja read his movements and saw what he was about to do. Before Mad Cat could grab the Winter Star, he jumped into the air and roundhouse kicked him in the head, causing them to fall back into Owlette. The bird heroine caught him, though she didn't know why, and roughly pushed him to his feet. Before he could glare at her for this, the pair found themselves surrounded by Ninjalinos.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, how rude!" Night Ninja taunted. "I think my Ninjalinos should teach you some manners."

Mad Cat and Owlette backed away in concern when they saw their troubled situation. They backed into each other and each turned to look at the other hero, sharing a hostile glance before sighing in acceptance. Both of them knew what they had to do. They stood back to back to each other and adopted defensive stances, waiting for the miniature ninjas to make their first move.

Apparently, they knew what the heroes were playing for a counter attack, so they didn't attack immediately, instead, they started taunting them with with beckoning gestures and even threw some sticky splats at their feet in order to throw them off of their focus. Mad Cat quickly grew tired of this. One might think that he would easily snap under this kind of irritation, but his anger was not his only trait. He may have been hot headed, but he never rushed into action without a plan. Not anymore, at least.

He started scanning the ninjalinos' stances, in the hopes of finding any flaw he might exploit. Failing to notice any, he decided to try to throw them off of their composure. He activated the lens in his mask, which began glowing in an almost unnatural blue light and gave the Ninjalinos the most threatening glare he could muster.

He honestly didn't have high hopes that it would work, so even he was a little surprised when he saw three little ninjas backing away with a nervous look. It was time and Mad Cat didn't waste it. Like they were nothing, but prey trying to back away from the predator, all three of them fell in the blink of an eye when he rushed at them with super speed and knocked them out cold. It happened so fast that to Owlette and the other Ninjalinos, it looked like Mad Cat knocked them out without even moving a muscle.

This also surprised the blue clad anti-hero, as he never remembered moving this fast before, but he didn't have time to reflect on that as two other Ninjalinos jumped to attack him. But they never got the chance as Owlette realized that it was her turn. She flew straight at one of the attackers and used every bit of her strength to throw him at the other and the two crashed roughly into the ground.

The pair landed in front of another one who jumped out of the way, but he didn't fare any better as Mad Cat ran into him like a speeding train engine, knocking him into the wall.

As expected, the remaining Ninjalinos became pretty demoralized, seeing that half of the group was taken out in about 5 seconds. From then on, they didn't stand a chance. Mad Cat saw two of them standing close to each other and rushed at them, uppercutting one of them in the chin, sending him into the air, then kicked the other one into Owlette's direction. The heroine saw this and raised her fist which contacted the little ninja, pinching his lights out.

Owlette then felt a hand on her shoulder and thinking it's another Ninjalino, she turned to counter, but was surprised to see Mad Cat standing behind her. She immediately thought that he was going to attack her and seeing as in theory, they were on the same side at the moment, she felt a slight sting of betrayal at this, despite the two of them not being the best of friends outside of this fight.

"What are you doing?" she asked, fully expecting a stab in the back. But then again, what else was she expecting from this guy. But Mad Cat's intentions were different this time.

"I'm giving you a push! Fly around in circles!" he instructed as he started spinning around in circles at super speed and threw her away. Owlette didn't know why, but some inner instinct told her to trust him. Not like she had any other choice because she couldn't stop herself from the superpowered push. She started flying around the last four Ninjalinos, creating a small tornado that lifted all four of them into air.

"Super Cat Jump!" Mad Cat yelled, jumping into the tornado and punching three of the Ninjalinos into the ground with all of his might. The fourth one flew so high that he couldn't reach him, but Owlette fixed that problem, by flying up and using her Owl Wing Wind to send him crashing into the ground, incapacitating the last of Night Ninja's minions.

The two heroes landed in front of each other, staring into each other's eyes with the same amount scorn as they did before, but Mad Cat noticed something else. It was only there for a few moments and it was very small l, but he could have sworn that it almost like a bit of grudging respect. And even though she didn't see through his lens, Owlette somehow knew that the his eyes reflected the same.

But their moment was interrupted when Mad Cat picked up something heading their way with his Cat Ears. He looked up to see a sticky splat heading towards them and using his super reflexes, he pushed Owlette away and threw himself back.

He surprised both of them with this action. _'Did I/he just protect her/me?'_ they thought at the same time. They looked back at each other with and he saw a bewildered expression on Owlette's face, but before he could make anything of it, he was snapped back to reality by an angry shout from Night Ninja.

"If you want to do something right, do it yourself!" he growled, obviously upset by the heroes effortlessly curb-stomping his mooks. He launched himself at Owlette with unusual ferocity and kicked her away against a wall. Mad Cat growled in fury and rushed at the villain attempting to punch him out, but Night Ninja pulled his head to the side just in time to avoid it. He attempted a counter attack, but Mad Cat blocked it, grabbed his hand and threw him over his shoulder.

However, the villain landed on his feet and tried to punch him again. Mad Cat once again blocked, pushed his fist aside and headbutted him straight in the face, making him back away a little. He tried to take advantage of the situation and rushed at him to finish this, but Night Ninja saw it coming. Still under the effect of the blow, he knew he couldn't counter, so he simply dropped himself to the ground. Mad Cat was so confused by this that he forgot to stop himself and he tripped in the ninja.

While the contact hurt, Night Ninja could get up and saw that Mad Cat was lying helplessly on the floor and tried to deliver a kick to the head, but his leg was stopped when he felt a firm grip on it. He looked up to see Owlette holding it and she didn't look happy.

"Didn't your parents teach you not to hit a girl?" she snarled as she twisted it, making him back away with an agonized cry. Owlette then turned to Mad Cat and did something that he almost couldn't fathom: she offered him her hand. After a brief pause of shock, he slowly, almost uncertainly took it and she helped him back on his feet.

"Don't read too much into this." she said with her finger held up in his face. "Now we're even." Mad Cat rolled his eyes in annoyance, but nodded. The two of them then turned back to Night Ninja, who manged to pull himself together.

The duo was about to charge at him, but the villain surprised them both by dropping a smoke bomb, blinding them long enough to get out of sight. While Mad Cat and Owlette were coughing from the smoke, Night Ninja grabbed the boy from behind and spun him around, throwing him at Owlette. The heroes crashed into each other and rolled to the ground and before they could stand up, the ninja pulled out a bunch of sticky splats, pushed them together then slowly pulled the blob apart and molded it into the shape of a lasso.

He didn't even wait for his opponents to recover. He threw his lasso at them, trapping them both, then proceeded to run around and wrapping the entire thing around them, leaving them helpless in this quite sticky situation.

"That should do it." he said in satisfaction before walking away from the pair. "Now if you don't mind, I'll just..." But Mad Cat didn't wait for him to finish. He summoned his neon claws and managed to bend his hand enough to cut through the glue with them, freeing himself and Owlette. He then used his super speed to get in front of Night Ninja, shocking him greatly as he didn't see them escaping, then delivered a kick into his stomach, with his Super Cat Jump activated to increase it's effect, sending him across the room.

On the other end, Owlette was waiting for him and sent him back to sender with a wave of Owl Wing Wind. When Mad Cat saw this, he threw himself onto his back and put feet together to send Night Ninja into the air with another kick. Owlette then flew up to grab him, then flew back towards the floor and used his face to mop it up until they reached the wall. She then slammed him into it and flew back to regroup with Mad Cat.

Night Ninja was quite shaken from the attacks, but he still had some fight in him. If only a very little. He had one more sticky splat left and he tried to throw it at the heroes, but since he was severely weakened from the beating he just got, he missed even without his two targets moving a muscle.

Owlette and Mad Cat watched without concern as the splat flew past between them and landed at the floor without causing any harm. At least, that was what they were expecting. But what happened instead had Mad Cat's blood freeze, because it didn't hit the floor or the wall, or another crate that contained something harmless. It hit the Winter Star, which Night Ninja left unguarded while he confronted them and Mad Cat completely forgot about in the heat of the ensuing battle.

The crystal was pushed back against the wall and bounced back a little with the splat on it's side visible to the heroes. Owlette was afraid that it might break, but if she knew what Mad Cat knew, she would be worrying much more for much more valid reasons. She looked up to see the blue costumed boy slowly backing away from the crystal and raised an eyebrow in confusion.

 _'What's his issue?'_ she got the answer very soon. She looked back at the jewel and saw that the splat that hit it has been frozen solid. Alarming as that may have been, what came next was even more frightening. She saw the crystal start glowing with a bright white light and felt a strange energy filling up the room and made it noticeable much more colder.

She didn't know what was about to happen but she could already tell it was gonna be bad. She backed up next to Mad Cat and Night Ninja who meanwhile recovered and was also curious to see what was about to happen. He would have been better off not knowing.

Mad Cat saw the crystal's glow getting brighter and brighter and as he felt the cold getting more intense with every passing second, he could already tell what was going to happen. And he could only comment on it with one thought.

 _'Aww, shoot.'_

* * *

 **AN: Well, it happened. We all knew it was coming, there was no stopping it. The power of the Winter Star is unleashed! But don't despair folks! For what you will see next time will not be a tragedy, but the finest hour of the PJ Masks! That is why I'm so sad that I can't start working on it right now.**

 **Specail thanks to my friend, Bouken Dutch 2.0 for letting me use Connor's last name from his story, "First Night". If you haven't read it yet, do yourselves a favor and do it. After you read this, of course! See you... sometime!**

 **But until then, don't forget! Keep reading, keep reviewing and keep staying wonderful!**

 **P. S.: Please, forgive the triple rhyme!**


	14. Saving the Day in the Night - Part 1

**Hey, guys! Sorry it took so long. Exam period was a murderer this semester. But it's finally over and I'm back! :)**

 **Anyway, I decided to splt this chapter in two parts as I wanted to update finally, but there's still plenty of left from the rescue operation in this chapter. I will return with that soon.**

 **Until the.n, enjoy it!**

* * *

 **Chapter 14: Saving the Day in the Night - Part 1**

Mad Cat slowly backed away from the glowing crystal, causing Owlette and Night Ninja to look at him in confusion. Of course, they also found the scene unfolding before their eyes strange and alarming, but even under his mask, they could tell Mad Cat was scared. And they soon understood why.

Both of them found their attention turning away from the feline themed anti-hero and back to the jewel, when they heard a loud sound that resembled a large object made of glass shattering on the floor and saw the Winter Star explode with such brightness that they had to shield their eyes.

Mad Cat's eyes were protected by his lens, so he didn't need to bother, but he saw what was about to happen and quickly grabbed the two by the back of their necks and pulled them behind one of the crates he noticed lying around. Even with his super speed, he could barely get them to safety in time before the icy shards that were launched out of the crystal pierced them. Panting heavily, Mad Cat prepared himself for the worst, but was surprised to realize that outside of the little outburst, nothing happened. He was starting to think he had overreacted, but nevertheless, this display of what the Winter Star was capable of was pretty frightening.

Owlette's shock was probably worse. She had just realized that she was an inch away from being killed by the shards if it weren't for Mad Cat. She would have been grateful, if it wasn't for the fact that it was him of all people to save her. They weren't even for long and now she was in his debt again. Night Ninja was also taken back, but he also found himself fascinated with what he just witnessed.

"Well, look at that! I didn't know it can do that." he mused with intrigue. "This crystal might just be more useful to me than I..." but whatever he intended to do with it was left unannounced because Mad Cat managed to snap out of his shocked state long enough to shut him up by smashing his head against the crate they were hiding behind.

Owlette had to resist the urge to thank him. While she didn't approve of Mad Cat's violent nature, she couldn't think of anything more frustrating than Night Ninja blabbering about something. She suddenly understood why Mad Cat acted so agitated around this thing, but she was yet to see the worst.

The crystal fell back to the ground and the room was filled with the very chilling sound of freezing. The two heroes saw ice very slowly creeping out from under the crystal, freezing the floor beneath and spreading across the room. Mad Cat and Owlette backed away in fear.

"You... You knew about this!" Owlette turned to Mad Cat accusingly.

"This is what I was trying to prevent." he replied matter-of-factly without even looking at her.

"Well, since you know so much about this thing, how do we stop it?" she asked in panic when she saw the spreading of the ice speeding up.

"I only know what it can do, not how it works!" Mad Cat told her angrily, getting irritated with her pestering. Owlette didn't like this tone and shot him an angry glare in response. A glare that turned to a look of concern when she noticed something from the corner of her eyes. The ice was spreading so quickly that it almost reached the unconscious ninjalinos. Despite the severe beating she and Mad Cat delivered to them earlier, she still wasn't about to let anyone get hurt.

"The ninjalinos!" she exclaimed. Mad Cat sprung around and raised his hands in defense, thinking that the little ninja minions came to and were about to attack again, but he quickly saw this wasn't the case. "We have to help them!" Owlette said, looking back at Mad Cat. The latter however, was not moved in the slightest.

"Why?" he asked casually with a shrug. He may have agreed with her if he was still Catboy, but he has learned his lesson ever since. He is not going to lift a finger to help villains anymore. Even if they were just minions.

Owlette gasped in shock. Just when she thought she had found a spark of soul inside of this brute, he proves her wrong and shows that he's nothing more than the fiend she knew he was. The ice was getting closer to the helpless ninjas by every second and Owlette realized she had no time to try and convince him otherwise.

"And you call yourself a hero?" she snarled, before taking off the save the ninjalinos from turning into ice sculptures. Mad Cat just watched her go with minimal interest. If she was going to waste her time on saving her enemies who constantly made her life and this city miserable, who was he to stop her?

After she left, Mad Cat heard the communicator in his ear beep. LIA was calling him. Wondering what the little machine wanted, he reached up to accept the call.

"LIA?"

"Mad Cat! I'm picking up an extremely cold spot at the town hall which keeps increasing in size and decreasing in temperature. Does this mean your mission was a failure?" Connor groaned in response.

"I'm afraid so. That idiot Night Ninja pushed the crystal so hard that it activated it's powers. Got any suggestions on how to stop this thing?"

"I am currently scanning the focal point of the phenomenon." it replied on it's usual monotone voice. "If I assume correctly, it is the Winter Star."

"Yes." Mad Cat confirmed.

"Affirmative. In that case, the most logical solution I can see is the destruction of the artifact. But I'm afraid it cannot be done directly."

"Why not?" Mad Cat wondered out loud.

"According to my readings, the cold coming from within the crystal is too severe for your body to bear. You can't destroy the artifact from close, you would certainly suffer irreparable damage." LIA explained.

"Of course not." Mad Cat whispered with annoyance. "That would have been an easy solution and who needs those?" he grumbled before ending the connection. Mad Cat looked up to see Owlette still busy trying to get the ninjalinos into safety. She was getting more and more hasty because almost the entire room has been frozen over by now.

And the ice was spreading faster and faster. The walls and all the crates in the storage room were already completely frozen and the ceiling wasn't far behind. And that's when Mad Cat's casual expression finally showed concern. Directly above the spot where Owlette managed to pile up the knocked out little ninjas, through the skylight, he saw giant ice crystals forming on the roof. He also noticed large cracks appearing in the ceiling and small pieces of it falling out of place and coming down. The roof was not able to support the weight of the ice formations. And before he could do anything, the ceiling broke apart!

Owlette heard the large crack and looked up to see the debris coming down at her. For a moment, she wasn't sure what to do. Her instincts told her to flee, but she didn't want to abandon the ninjalinos despite them being her enemies. Mad Cat saw her frightened and helpless expression and that triggered something inside him. Suddenly he didn't see Owlette, the superheroine who failed him as a companion on two fateful occasions which lead to his transformation into a violent anti-hero and whom he was supposed to resent with all of his being. Seeing her like this reminded him of what was behind the red bird mask. Suddenly, the whole world disappeared around him and all he could think of was one thing.

 _'Amaya...'_

"SUPER CAT STRIPES!" the next thing Owlette saw was a pair of glowing blue lines cutting into the falling debris from downwards, slicing it in pieces and those pieces landed around her and the ninjalinos instead of on them.

Owlette looked up in utter surprise to see the boy she was supposed to hate but had saved her life two times tonight looking at her and she did not see it, but his expression mirrored hers. With nothing he could think of to say or do, he just activated his super speed and ran off. Owlette had no idea what just happened, but she didn't even have time to reflect on this as her communicator beeped.

"Amaya, what in the world is going on in there?!" Greg practically shrieked on the other end.

"I don't know!" she replied with equal panic in her voice. "Night Ninja did something to this crystal! It's freezing everything!"

"Now Night Ninja is here?" Greg said with an irritated groan. "This just keeps getting better!"

"What do you mean?" Owlette asked. "What happened?"

"You tell me! We've heard a huge crash out here now everyone is panicking!" Owlette looked around and saw that the situation in the room was getting worse. She flew up to the spot where the ceiling came off from, carefully peaking out to avoid someone catching even the slightest glimpse of her and gasped in horror when she saw what was happening.

Almost entire building have been frozen over and it was spreading further. It had already reached the stage that was set up in front of the town hall, causing the current performers to flee in horror. And the people before the stage weren't doing any better. While some of them were too stunned from the unfathomable sight to move a muscle. But that soon changed when they all saw the completely frozen town hall falling apart even further. Giant ice crystals grew out from inside the building, making people back away in fright. Though Greg had a hard time seeing from behind the crowd of adults.

"Amaya, are you alright?!" he screamed into his wristband. She was about to reply, but before she could, she heard another loud crash coming from right in front of her. The ice crystals burst through the front entrance of the town hall and the walls around it, making the frozen concrete fall on the ground and rolling towards the audience. And at this point, the people wouldn't even have time to escape. They couldn't have possibly get away from the debris in time.

Owlette looked on in horror. She knew what was about to happen and she also knew one more thing; she was the only one who could do something about it. And when she saw her family and their terrified expressions through her owl eyes, she knew what she had to do. Narrowing her eyes in determination she burst forward in the air and let out a yell.

"SUPER OWL FEATHERS!" she roared as she sailed through the air above the audience, shooting the giant feathers into the ground right between the people and the frozen debris. Thanks to her flight being just as fast as the Super Cat Speed, she was able to intervene just in time to stop the tragedy from happening. The crowd looked up and their horror turned into amazement when they saw the tiny superheroine floating above them. Owlette looked down at them, seeing a few of them staring at her in bewilderment, others were whispering to each other, no wonder discussing if they were really just saved by a real superhero and the others have finally pulled themselves together and started running away from the site. Owlette saw the ice spreading out of the ruins of the town hall and decided it would be the best if she the everyone followed their examples.

She flew down in front of them. "Get out of here! GO!" she told crowd. They needed no further encouragement. The crowd turned and left the scene as fast as their legs allowed. At least the ones who could.

"Help!" Owlette heard a loud cry coming from nearby. She turned to see a little girl, no older than herself with her leg trapped under a large piece of rubble that slipped through the gap between the giant feathers with her parents struggling to free her. Owlette gasped, realizing that due to her rush, she didn't place the feathers into the ground close enough to each other to each other to stop everything from getting through. She flew to their side and tried to assist them, but even the three of them weren't enough to remove the rubble and the ice was getting closer! Owlette once again found herself wishing she had some of Gekko's powers, but all of a sudden, her prayers were answered when the aforementioned reptilian superhero materialized next to her, startling both her and the family.

"Leave it to me." he said, activating his Super Gekko Muscles and lifting the rubble off of the girl's leg with ease. The family stared in awe for a while before picking their daughter and turning to leave. One superhero at their child's age was surprising enough, but two seemed almost incomprehensible. But with the ice breaking through the ruins and even freezing the Super Owl Feathers, which left Owlette stepping back in horror, there was no time to ponder on that. The mother took the little girl in her arms and they ran off, leaving the PJ Masks to finally focus on the main issue.

"How did you get away from the others?" Owlette asked once they were alone.

"I sneaked away and transformed. Everyone was focusing on the Town Hall crumbling, so it wasn't hard." Gekko explained. Despite the grimness of the situation, Owlette couldn't help but chuckle.

"You realize we're in huge trouble, right?"

"Yes, but when I saw what is happening here, I just had to do something. I couldn't leave you alone in there and if my parents ground me until graduation for helping you, so be it." Gekko replied. Owlette turned away from him to look on the ground with a blush, which soon turned into a warm smile as he looked back at him. It was good to know that Gekko still always had her back.

"Thanks." Gekko smiled back.

"Anytime. Back to business though, what is going on? What's causing this?" he asked as he turned back towards the advancing ice.

"The Winter Star. We fought with Night Ninja over it and he hit it with a sticky splat. Then it exploded with ice and started freezing everything." she explained, but one word in her sentence caused Gekko to frown in confusion.

"We?" he asked. Before Owlette could answer, someone else beat her to it.

"She means me." came the simple reply on a gruff voice. They both jumped and turned around to see Mad Cat standing behind them. "And if you're willing to listen, I figured out how to stop this." Gekko raised a brow in suspicion and turned to Owlette with a questioning look. The bird heroine let out a heavy sigh and only nodded in response. Gekko still had his suspicions, but he decided that if Owlette is willing to put aside her animosity towards him after wanting to take him down so badly, that's good enough for him.

"How?"

"We have to destroy the Winter Star." Mad Cat replied swiftly and casually, surprising both of the heroes.

"That crystal is a one of a kind, irreplaceable piece of art worth millions!" Gekko argued. He had to listen to the mayor repeatedly announce this as the opening ceremony went on.

"It's either that, or it turns this entire region into the next Arctic! Which one sounds better?" Mad Cat snapped. Owlette and Gekko shared a look of contemplation, but with the ice getting closer, they were running out of space to back away, so they had to choose fast. Eventually, Gekko broke the silence.

"Fine. I'll go in there and smash it." he announced, but before he could head inside, Mad Cat pulled him back by his tail.

"I wouldn't recommend that. That thing is probably the coldest spot on the planet right now. Get too close and you will freeze to death in seconds." he warned, which instantly dampened Gekko's spirit. Mad Cat then turned to Owlette.

"Your Owl Glider would be perfect for this job." he suggested. Owlette was a little surprised that he knew so much about them, going as far as knowing about their vehicles. The PJ Masks always operated with the biggest discretion. But still, she agreed with him. Sadly, the Owl Glider was still in repair at HQ after Romeo wrecked it with his energy weapon.

"It's currently out of order. It was badly damaged during a previous mission." Mad Cat growled in frustration.

"Why am I not surprised?" he said bitterly, which earned him an angry scowl from Owlette. Yeah, the PJ Masks seem to have been better at damaging things than saving them. But this wasn't a time to gloat. They needed to act and fast. Mad Cat searched his environment for anything that might be useful and saw the piece of rubble that Gekko freed the little girl from under just minutes ago, which gave him an idea.

"Then we'll have to improvise." he muttered. Owlette and Gekko looked over to him, curious about what he had in mind.

* * *

Mad Cat tried his hardest to escape the memory of being one of the PJ Masks. Which was getting increasingly harder when their paths continued to cross at every opportunity. And this situation was certainly not helping. The three of them were currently floating through the air, thanks to Owlette. Mad Cat was holding onto her legs and Gekko did the same to him, while carrying the rubble with his legs using the Super Lizard Grip. Exactly the same situation as the one where Night Ninja tried to destroy their HQ with a giant ball of sticky splat. The situation would have been nostalgic in other circumstances. But now, he just wanted to get this over with as soon as possible.

"Alright, get us above the storage room. Or what was left of it." he told her. Owlette didn't like the idea of taking orders from him, but right now, she had to swallow her pride. She headed for the ruins, searching for the Winter Star with her Owl Eyes, but she had to be careful. She hated to admit it, but Mad Cat was right. The temperature was almost unbearably cold around the Winter Star and there was also an increasing wind around it in the air, which was making it harder to get closer to the crystal.

Gekko probably had it worse. He not only had to deal with the cold, but also holding the rubble they were planning to throw on the Winter Star. And he wasn't trusting Mad Cat in the slightest with holding him.

Owlette finally managed to notice the artifact, but couldn't fly directly above it. The cold was getting harder to tolerate and the wind kept pushing them back. Mad Cat noticed that they were starting to lose altitude. The cold was wearing the girl down and she even had to hold the two of them. There was no telling how much more will she last.

He quickly realized that they need to come up with something else. He kept brainstorming, but the only thing that came to his mind was insanely risky. But the cold was beginning to irritate him more and more and it was affecting his thinking. Eventually, he voiced his idea.

"Alright, listen! If we can't get near the crystal, we'll have to throw the rubble at it!"

"We're too far from it! We can't be sure to hit it from this distance!" Gekko argued. Mad Cat knew he won't like what he's going to say next.

"I'll throw you in it's direction. Once you get close enough, let go of it and I'll pull you back with the Super Cat Stripes!"

"Are you crazy?!" Owlette shouted from above him.

"Do you have a better idea?" Mad Cat yelled back.

"If you're so sure about this then why don't you jump in?" she snapped back. Mad Cat narrowed his eyes.

"Thanks for the tip, but Gekko is the only one who can carry it!" he responded.

"If you think we will..."

"Enough, Owlette!" Gekko interrupted what she was about to say. He thought Mad Cat's plan over and came to the same conclusion as him. "He's right. I'll do it." Owlette's eyes widened.

"Gekko, I can't let you do this!" she argued firmly. Gekko... Greg has been her only anchor left that kept her from floating away in her despair. She couldn't lose him too.

"Owlette, look around you?!" Gekko yelled. She looked up to do just that and saw that the ice has just reached the borders of the park and now were spreading further. It has started freezing over other buildings and vehicles as well. Some of them still had people in it! Usually, she would have probably uttered her catchphrase in horror, but the sight made her utterly speechless.

"We need to put an end to this and we've already lost too much time!" Gekko reasoned.

"But... but, Gekko..." Owlette looked back down at him with tearful eyes. But Gekko couldn't back down. Not this time.

We all knew what we signed up for when we got our powers! What kind of hero would I be if I walked away when my town is freezing over?! Think Owlette! What would Flossy Flash do?!"

Owlette hated it when her colleagues played this card against her. 'The right thing.' she thought sadly as she prepared herself for the task both mentally and physically.

Mad Cat watched the scene with mild interest. He never saw them so emotional before. It almost brought back a piece of Catboy into him, but no matter how hard that piece tried, his resentment towards Owlette and Gekko for leaving him in Romeo's lab for him to experiment on and letting him fall to his apparent death was too much for it to overcome. He would have interrupted and urged them to hurry up, but he saw that Owlette finally made her mind up and he would have only broke her focus.

Owlette started rocking back and forth, swaying the boys along with her. Gekko grasped Mad Cat's legs firmly and prepared himself to jump. Owlette swayed for a third time and gave the signal.

"Now!" she yelled. Mad Cat swung his legs forward to give him a bigger push and Gekko let go of his legs the next thing he knew, he was soaring through the air towards the ground, hopefully towards the Winter Star. His hopes were confirmed when he felt the cold increasing and stinging his exposed face more intensely. Soon, even his suit didn't protect him from it anymore and he could feel himself shivering, but it wasn't the time to let go. Not yet.

Owlette watched him go with perhaps the most worried expression she ever wore. The fact that his life was in Mad Cat's hand definitely didn't help.

"If you don't catch him, I'll throw you in there too." She warned him. Her tone let Mad Cat know that she was dead serious. While the thought was scary, Mad Cat smiled to himself. _'Fair enough.'_

Gekko finally reached the point where the cold became unbearable and he knew the time has come. He turned off the Lizard Grip and and pushed himself away from the rubble, pushing it towards the crystal at the same time. As soon as Owlette saw this, she yelled.

"NOW!" Mad Cat didn't hesitate.

"Super Cat Stripes!" he shouted, throwing the glowing blue lines towards Gekko's direction. The scene played out in only a few seconds, but for Owlette, it seemed like an eternity. Gekko caught the stripes and Owlette flew back from the ruins as fast as she could. But she wasn't fast enough.

The rubble fell towards the Winter Star, increasing in speed. The crystal's power froze it solid as it got closer, but that only made it heavier and more suitable for the task. The frozen rubble landed right on top of the crystal, shattering it to a million tiny pieces in the process. Almost like a dying breath, the Winter Star let out one last blast of cold wind upon exploding, which caught the heroes, pushing them back in the air. This caused Owlette to lose her balance and the trio started to descend towards the ground.

Fortunately for them, they weren't that high and there was a frozen tree nearby that caught them. Not for long though, as the branches broke apart from the impact and Mad Cat and Gekko soon found themselves back on the ground with several aching spots in their bodies.

 _'Well, that wasn't the most pleasant landing I've ever experienced.'_ Mad Cat thought as he got back on his feet. _'Still, it easily beats the last two ones.'_

But soon, he found himself with bigger things to worry about as he suddenly noticed that the len over his left eye started freezing over. Most likely a side effect of the blast. Mad Cat's eyes widened in alarm.

 _'Shoot, shoot, shoot...'_ he thought to himself repeatedly as he unleashed one of his neon claws and brought it up to his eye to cut a hole in his mask around the len and pull it out. He barely managed to get it off and throw it away in time before the ice spread over to the rest of his mask.

Sighing in relief, he was brought back to reality by Gekko.

"Where's Owlette?" he asked. Mad Cat didn't know and couldn't really bring himself care right now, but when he heard a soft moan from above, he looked up to see the bird heroine in question who was still caught up in the branches. Apparently, her branches lasted longer than theirs. Not by much though, as they also broke a few seconds later and Owlette started falling towards the ground.

When Mad Cat saw this, he acted completely out of reflex and not thinking, because in his current mindset he probably wouldn't have caught her in his arms.

Owlette has had enough. She used up all of her energies and the fight with Mad Cat, Night Ninja and the flying operations she just performed finally took their toll on her. She started passing out in Mad Cat's arms, but not before looking up at him. Her vision was mostly blurry at this point, but she could still make out one thing perfectly. Under Mad Cat's torn mask, she saw an unmistakable blue eye stating back at her. She wasn't sure if she saw it correctly or if her mind was just playing tricks on her, but the sight triggered something she thought would never surface again. Before finally giving in to unconsciousness, she could only mutter one thing.

"Connor..."

As she passed out in his arms, Mad Cat looked down at her without any emotion in his eyes. He didn't feel anything, because what Owlette just said reached inside him and filled his entire being with an overwhelming calmness and peace that he never thought would know again. The way she soflty, calmly and so beautifully whispered his name caused Connor to bring one of his hands up to her cheek and slowly pull it across it once. His mind was blank and empty. He could only thing one thing and one thing only.

 _'She called me Connor...'_

* * *

 **Hope you liked it! :)**

 **How will this effect the relationship between Mad Cat and his former teamates? What happened to Night Ninja and the ninjalinos? What will happen to those citizens trapped in ice? Find out next time on Mad Cat!**

 **Unitl then, keep reading, keep reviewing and keep staying wonderful! :)**


	15. Saving the Day in the Night - Part 2

**Well, here it is! The newest chapter to Mad Cat. Sorry for the long delay, but I hope the chapter's length makes up for it. I really got carried away with this!**

 **I'll tell more at the end, but for now, let's dive right into it!**

* * *

 **Chapter 15: Saving the Day in the Night - Part 2**

Connor was still in a state of shock from Owlette calling him by his real name. It was not that he was afraid that she might have learned who he was under the mask - at this point, he didn't even think it would matter at all anyway - but it has reached a part of his soul that put him at ease for the first time since he became Mad Cat. It just felt... good. The feeling eventually passed, leaving him to wonder why was this affecting him so much, but before he could come to a conclusion, Gekko snapped him out of his thoughts.

"Hey!" He turned his head back and saw the green costumed hero over his shoulder glaring at him in an untrusting way. That quickly snapped him out of his monumentary trance, reminding him that they were supposed to be enemies at the moment. He scowled and turned to Gekko, hoping that he didn't notice his exposed eye in the dark. Gekko was always more of a muscle than a brain for the team, but even he could put two and two together. He handed the unconscious Owlette to him.

"I think this belongs to you." he growled. Gekko took Owlette in his arms and watched as Mad Cat turned to walk away. Shooting one last glare at his receding figure, he called out to him again.

"Hey!" Mad Cat stopped and turned back, making sure that only his covered eye was visible to him.

"What?" he asked with barely hidden annoyance in his voice.

"Don't think this changes anything between us! The next time we see you..." he was interrupted by a low chuckle from Mad Cat that sent chills down his spine.

"Oh, I'm looking forward to it." he replied before speeding off, not leaving Gekko time for a response. The way he said that didn't do much to ease Gekko's nerves. After all, it was only last night that he beat both him and Owlette into a pulp and they have yet to train against him. And that is not likely to change anytime soon as they will have to spend the next few days with recovering from this night.

Gekko decided to forget about that for the moment and focus on helping Owlette get better.

* * *

Mad Cat didn't run far, he just wanted to get away from Gekko to collect his thoughts and catch a breath after what just happened. While the ordeal with the Winter Star was certainly exhilarating grueling, Owlette calling him by his real name probably hit him harder.

The way she spoke had a soothing touch on his being. For a moment, he felt like every bit of his rage that he bulit his new character upon has dissipated. And soon he realized why. It was the exact same reason why he saved her from the fallen debris. Because in that moment he saw Amaya instead of Owlette. And he didn't understand why was this affecting him in such a way. It was like Amaya and Owlette were having the opposite effect on him despite the two being the exact same person. And he had no idea why.

Nor did he have any time to dwell on this, because his thoughts were interrupted by a slow clapping sound coming from above him. He looked up to see Luna Girl sitting on her Luna Board with a satisfied expression on her face.

"That was awesome! 10 out of 10! Too bad you had to ruin the show with stupid heroics with the PJ Masks." Mad Cat would have reacted to her presence with anger, if he wasn't completely confused by what she just said.

"What are you talking about?" he asked with exasperation. Luna's cheerful demeanor remained the same as she answered.

"What do you think, dummy? The way you threw down with Night Ninja! And as much as I hate to give her credit, bird brain was awesome too. Never knew she had it in her." she mused, completely unaware Mad Cat's confusion.

"You saw that?" he asked, dumbstruck. Luna just smiled at him in response.

"Saw it? I've had my moths record it!" she exclaimed with joy as two Luna Moths showed up next to her, holding a camera. Luna Girl took it and rewatched the footage. "Man, this is even better than I remembered! This stuff is like blog worthy. You know, if I had one." she then put a finger on her chin in thought. "Hmm, should I start one?"

Mad Cat rolled his eyes at the villainess' antics and was about to ditch her until he heard what she said next.

"Leaving so soon? Thought a "hero" like you would stick around to help the civilians." Mad Cat's bloodblood froze when he heard that.

"What did you say?!" he asked in shock as he turned back to her.

"Oh, nothing serious." she said dismissively with a shrug. "Just a few people who got caught up in the destruction while fleeing from the early winter. That's all." Mad Cat had to resist the urge to slap his forehead. How could he forget about people in danger? That was like the number one reason superheroes are supossed to prevent!

He activated his Cat Ears to locate the people who needed help, but there were so many of them that his super sense quickly became overwhelmed, making him unable to make out anything. Eventually, he was forced to give up and grasped his head in despair. What was he supposed to do now?! His mental panicking was interrupted by a chuckle from Luna Girl.

"Sounds like you've got your hands full." she remarked, causing Mad Cat to glare up at her.

"Do you think this is funny?" he growled. Luna thought for a moment before answering.

"Well, no. Not really, but your mental struggling is!" she then raised her camera and pointed it at Mad Cat. "Smile for the camera!" Mad Cat was about to pounce on her in rage. Seeing this, Luna backed away a little on her board and raised her hands in front of herself calmingly.

"Hey now! Easy, tiger! I can help you out!" Mad Cat ignored her and Super Cat Jumped on the Luna Board. He grabbed her by her suit and pulled her to his face, causing her to drop the camera. She looked down in fright, but was quickly calmed when she saw her moths catching it before it hit the ground. Sighing in relief, she turned back to Mad Cat.

"And why would you?!" he roared in her face. Luna saw his exposed eye, which was completely dark with rage, but she was completely unaffected. She knew exactly which buttons to push on this feral kitten. She just flashed her mischievous smile and said, "Because you will give me something in return." Mad Cat's eyes narrowed further.

"What do you want?" she snarled into her face.

"A piece of the Winter Star." she replied. Mad Cat knew immediately that she was up to something.

"Why don't you go and get it yourself?" he questioned, his tone noticeably calmer. Of course Luna Girl has thought of that, but she was enjoying the game she was playing with the feral cat until now and she wanted to play a little more. That was her plan, but now she ruined it, because now he knew she wanted a piece of that crystal and he would more than likely make sure to prevent her from getting it. But Luna Girl wanted a piece of that crystal. And what she wanted, she got. Plain and simple. She just smirked back before answering.

"Do you need the location of those people or not?" she answered cheekily. "The clock is ticking, kitty. How long do you think those people are gonna last?"

Mad Cat kept up his glare for a few more moments, but eventually realized it was useless. And she was right. There was no point wasting time. He let out a frustrated sigh and let go of the villainess' suit.

"Fine." he growled as he activated his super cat speed and jumped off the glider to fulfill Luna Girl's request. In a second, he was right back, holding a small fragment of the crystal between his fingers. While it was no longer dangerous, it was still incredibly cold and he probably wouldn't have been able to keep hold of it if it wasn't for his costume. And even with that, it was starting to make him feel uncomfortable.

"Here." he grumbled reluctantly as he held it up for her to take.

"You're sweet, kitty." Luna said on a cutesy voice as she took the fragment and put it away. "Now, a promise is a promise, but I think I'll better show than tell." she snapped her fingers and a swarm of moths appeared and flew next to Mad Cat. "My moth's will show the way."

The hero wasn't very happy with this. "You better won't try to set me up." he threatened menacingly, which Luna Girl just waved off with a roll of her eyes.

"Don't worry. You know you're good with me. And I have something else for you to win your trust." she reached behind herself and pulled something out. Handing it to Mad Cat, he realized that it was a white lens, similar to the one he just lost from his mask. "You seem to be touchy about your true identity, so take this to make sure no one recognizes you. I don't want to share my new friend with anyone." she said with a sudden wink before floating off. Mad Cat raised an eyebrow at this strange gesture, but quickly chose to ignore it and turned to the insects floating before him. "Move along." he told then bluntly.

* * *

Meanwhile, back at the ruins of the Town Hall, Gekko laid Owlette against the frozen tree that broke their fall earlier. While it was still cold, at least it didn't threaten to turn them into ice sculptures anymore.

"Hey, Owlette!" Gekko called out to her, gently petting her cheek in an attempt to wake her up. "Come on. I know you, Owlette." he whispered, grabbing the girl's shoulders and looking straight at her closed eyes. "It takes a lot more than a little ice blast and a fall to bring you down. Now, please, show me the amazing heroine I know you are and wake up. Please!" he gently pressed their foreheads together and closed his eyes, praying for something to happen. And his prayers have been answered.

"Ungh... Gek-Gekko..." Owlette grumbled as she slowly regained her consciousness. The green hero's eyes quickly shot up and he leaned back to see her opening her eyes and grabbing her head in pain. Gekko's expression was one of radiant happiness. He knew Owlette would never let her down.

"Yeah, I'm here." he replied quickly to reassure her. As soon as she heard that voice, she completely forgot about all of her pain and looked up to see Gekko smiling down at her warmly. Immediately she threw her arms around the boy's neck and pulled him in for a hug. Gekko was caught off guard, but nevertheless quickly returned the gesrtue.

"You're ok." Owlette sobbed into his shoulder.

"Of course, I am, why wouldn't I be?" Gekko joked, holding on to her tightly.

"I was so afraid. When you jumped in there..." she started, but Gekko cut her off.

"Shh, it's okay now." he said, rubbing her back in circles reassuringly. "We did it. It's over."

"No, it's not." the two jumped out of their embrace to see Mad Cat standing right behind them. They were embarrassed that he caught them in such an intimate situation, but there was no way they were letting him see this.

"What do you want?" Gekko asked firmly. Mad Cat glared right back at him. For some reason, he felt more antagonistic towards Gekko than Owlette at the moment. And for some strange reason, he felt like this had something to do with how he caught him hugging the bird heroine. He didn't know why this bothered him so much when he was supposed to hate them both, but right now, he didn't care either.

What he DID care about however - much as he hated to admit it - was that he needed the help of his former comrades once again. Luna Girl's morhs showed him where to find the people who needed help, but there were too many of them to handle on his own. He explained the situation to them and their animosity towards him quickly turned into horrified concern. They hated the idea of working with Mad Cat again as much as he did, but those people needed help.

"How should we do it?" Owlette asked in panic. Mad Cat however had the perfect plan.

"I know exactly where to find those people and which ones you would be the best suited to help." he explained. Gekko however wasn't having any of it, and before Mad Cat could continue, he beat him to it.

"What makes you think you can boss us around?" he asked sharply.

"We don't have time for this?!" Mad Cat shrieked so loud that it made the other two heroes jump. "We have to save those people and I'm the only one who knows how to get to them! You don't have much of a choice!" But Gekko was not feeling reasonable at the time.

"Well, I... "

"Gekko, that's enough!" Owlette cut him off. "He's right." Gekko could not believe his eyes.

"You're taking his side?" he asked in disbelief. Owlette glared at the boy who she thought stole the identity of her late friend. It drove her crazy too, but there was nothing she could do about it right now. She turned back to Gekko.

"There are no sides this time, Gekko! There's no time for arguing. Those people need us! Would you abandon them just to disagree with him?" she asked, gesturing at Mad Cat with her head. Her words made Gekko look down in shame. She was right. Some hero would that make him. Mad Cat had no patience left for them.

"Are you finished?!" he snapped, making them snap out of their conversation. They narrowed their eyes at him, but before they could say anything, he Mad Cat decided not to give them the time and start breaking down the situation before they fall into another argument. He grabbed Gekko's shoulder and pointed into the direction of the park's south side.

"Gekko, the ice only spread out of the park at the southern exit. Most people you saved at the town hall managed to escape, but a few who just arrived got trapped in their cars. The firefighters have arrived at the scene and they are trying to break them out, but I think you would do a better job." Mad Cat instructed. He then turned to Owlette. "We'll handle the rest. The ones who didn't make it out in time. You go southeast. Look for 'Happy Pine Restaurant'. A few people didn't notice what was happening outside and got trapped." concern immediately overcame Owlette's face. She knew that place well. Her parents still took her there fromfrom time to time.

"And where will you be?" Gekko asked with crossed arms.

"Southwest by the lake. A few people who were rowboating, fishing and the likes got caught on the island in the middle of it. I just hope they're still okay." he said in concern. When the moths lead him there, the island was surrounded by a large wall of ice, making impossible for him to see how the civilians were doing.

Owlette and Gekko both raised a brow at this. They have only seen Mad Cat as a violent, aggressive brute, who only wanted to fight. The sudden concern he showed surprised them a little. And Mad Cat noticed in alarm that he started to sound very much like Connor. If he wasn't careful, he could give himself away to his former friends. He decided to end their interaction.

"Are you still standing here?!" he snapped at them in a harsher, more unrecognizable voice. "Get to it!" he yelled, before activating his Super Cat Speed and running off. Owlette and Gekko glared after him.

"Jerk." the latter snarled.

"But he's right for once." Owlette told him, her voice making it perfectly clear how bitter of a taste this statement left in her mouth. "Those people need our help and we've already wasted enough time. Let's go!" she was about to take off, but then Gekko said something that stopped her in her tracks.

"I wish Connor was here." he whispered sadly. Owlette turned back to him to see the green suited boy staring down at the ground in sadness. She grimly realized that the roles have suddenly changed. It looks like Gekko has reached the limit of his mental endurance and he finally got overwhelmed by his grief. Just like she used to be. Back then, he was the one to serve as an emotional pillar for her, and now it was her turn. And after everything he has done for her when she needed support, she wasn't going to let him down. She floated back to the ground and put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"I know. As do I. Let's go and make him proud!" she smiled at him encouragingly. She was nowhere near as good at pep talk as him, so she decided to keep it simple. Luckily, it did the trick. Gekko's spirits were lifted as he returned the smile. Owlette gave an approving nod before taking off towards the direction of the restaurant. Gekko looked after her for a while, unable to forget those encouraging eyes and bright smile. He snapped out of it it when she got out of his sight, sheepishly remembering that he had a job to do.

* * *

Mad Cat arrived to the boating lake and as soon as he got out from between the trees, he noticed in horror that the island in the middle of it was completely surrounded by giant icy spikes by huge icy spikes, similar to the ones they've seen at the town hall. He could only pray that the ice didn't reach the people trapped inside. He ran around the unnatural formation to find an opening and he did manage to find one small crack between two spikes. He ran up to it and felt immensely relieved once he saw the ice didn't completely overran the lake. It stopped just a little before they reached the island. He saw about twenty people who were on the island . They all managed make it to safety, but they couldn't get out now.

He narrowed his eyes in thought, trying to come up with a way to get them out. He tried to recall the events of the past few days to remember a situation that he could use right now and as he brainstormed, one did come to his mind. He remembered his training session with the PJ Drones back at HQ. Particularly the part where he crushed one of them with his Super Cat Stripes. _'Unbreakable and just as strong as the Super Gekko Muscles.'_

He had an idea, but he couldn't do it alone. He Super Cat Jumped over the ice wall and ran up to the civilians.

"Hey!" Mad Cat called out to them as he got up to them. The people jumped in surprise. Not only did they got stranded in the middle of the boating lake by a mysterious freeze, but now a young boy in a strange costume appears in front of them out of nowhere in a blast of lightning. They were understandably confused and alerted.

"Wh-Who are you?" a young women asked, trying to shield her two children from both the cold and the stranger.

"I'm here to get you out of here!" before he could break his idea down, he was interrupted by a harsh laugh. It came from a young man.

"You? Aren't you a little young to be saving the world?" he asked cynically. Mad Cat shot him an unamused look, however, it quickly turned to concern when he saw the guy slipping on some of the ice that still made it to the island's soil and fell towards some smaller ice spikes growing out of it. Everyone gasped in horror and the mother covered her children's eyes, but what happened next surprised them more.

"Super Cat Speed." The next thing the guy knew was landing on cold but smooth ice instead of the piercing pain he was expecting. He looked up to see Mad Cat standing over him, holding the ice spikes in his clawed hands. Fortunately, these spikes were small and the ice was not as thick as the larger ones so he could cut them with his glowing neon claws. The guy looked up at him in awe and little bit of embarrassment, before Mad Cat spoke again.

"Anymore questions?" Like a student who just got caught slacking off in class and asked if he was paying attention, the guy sheepishly shook his head and slowly got back on his feet. The other people watching were still too stunned from what they just saw a boy who couldn't have been older then 8 do. They were still having a hard time believing he is going to get them out of there, but at the moment, they weren't exactly in the position to be picky.

"That was impressive, but still, how exactly are you planning to get us out of here?" asked a middle aged man.

"I have an idea. But I will need your help." Mad Cat answered. He noticed the two little kids whimpering in the arms of their mother and slowly walked up to them. "What are your names?" he asked, making sure to use the softest voice he can muster. The two kids looked over at him with watery eyes.

"I'm Peter." the boy answered. "This is my little sister Lisa."

"Can you really save us?" Lisa asked hopefully, but still in despair. Mad Cat nodded back at them.

"I won't stop until all of you are out of here, safe and sound." he vowed. "Would you like to help me?" the two kids looked at each other in shock, then back at Mad Cat.

"How?" Peter asked. Mad Cat activated his Super Cat Stripes and pulled them off of his arms.

"Can you hold these for me?" the kids hesitated a little, but in the end, they took the glowing stripes into their hands. Mad Cat patted them on the shoulders encouragingly.

"I'll be right back." he told the people around him before speeding off and jumping over the ice wall. He pulled the stripes through the crack and ran around the frozen over lake, wrapping his stripes all around the formation surrounding it. After getting back to the crack, he jumped back inside, making sure the stripes were in place, then ran back to the island where the two kids were still holding steadily.

"You did great!" Mad Cat praised, earning a smile from the two. "Alright, everyone! Grab these and pull as hard as you can!" he instructed. The people didn't really understand his plan, but after saving the young man earlier, it seemed like he earned their trust. Everyone lined up in front of Peter and Lisa and took hold of the stripes, before starting to pull them with all their might. Mad Cat felt the stripes tighten around the wall, but for a few moments, nothing happened and he was afraid that his plan failed, but then suddenly, a loud crack echoed throught the enclosed space, which made everyone jump in fright.

"What was that?" another woman asked.

"It's working!" Mad Cat replied. "Keep it up!"

They did exactly that. That cracking sounds intensified from every direction. It was pretty ear grating, but they couldn't allow themselves to stop. This went on for a few minutes, until finally, the stripes ripped through the ice wall and crystals, making them crash onto the ground. The people barely had enough time to cover their ears. When they looked up they were happy to notice that they could see the park again. Mad Cat took a look around and found a path that was both safe smooth enough for the people to walk out.

"This way!" he called to them while pointing towards the path. "There's no way the ice over the lake will break. You can get out now!" They didn't need to be told twice. Everyone slowly and steadily walked off the island one by one, each of them giving the young superhero thankful looks and praises.

Behind the Mad Cat facade, Connor felt strange. This was unusual. He never got any praise for his hero work before, which was not surprising, considering the people didn't know about the PJ Masks. But still, he found it very pleasant. The last people to get off were Peter and Lisa with their mother and the young man he saved from getting impaled on ice spikes.

"Thank you so much." the mother said earnestly. Mad Cat just nodded back.

"You're welcome, ma'am." he replied, before turning towards the kids. "You two did great too." he told them, causing the two to smile. They headed off and Mad Cat was about to do the same, before beign approached by the young man.

"Thanks." he said. "For everything. And... sorry about the earlier." he apologized in shame. Mad Cat just waved it off.

"Forget about it. Just go home, okay?" he said softly. He nodded back at him.

"Right. Thanks again." he was about to go, but then he turned. "You know, you never told us your name. Mine is Kevin, by the way." Mad Cat stopped. His new name would probably not be very appropriate to reveal after such a daring rescue.

In the end, he simply said, "I'm just a guy who loves cats." before speeding off. He made sure to only stop when he was out of their sights.

"Well, that went surprisingly well." he told himself. But suddenly, he remembered that the other two heroes also had troubled people to save . It would probably be for the best if he checked on them. "Let's hope those idiots fared better then the last time they had to save someone." he said with a sigh.

* * *

Owlette just landed by the restaurant Mad Cat mentioned. And indeed, the situation was just as bad as he described. The entire building had been enclosed in ice.

"How on Earth am I supposed to do this on my own?" she asked herself in despair. She got back into the air and activated her Owl Eyes to search for a spot she could use to get in the get the people out. After a few moments of circling, she noticed one small spot on the roof where the ice seemed to be the thinnest. She landed there, trying to come up with an idea, but after several minutes, she still had nothing. How she wished she could think as fast as Catboy right now.

But out of nowhere, she felt something hit the top of her. She looked up to see another frozen tree over her, it's branch reaching over the restaurant. That gave her an idea. But first, she needed to make sure the people inside were alright. The building was small, so they wouldwould probably hear her through the roof.

"Hello!" she yelled. "Is anyone there?" After a few moments of silence, she received an answer.

"Yes!" someone yelled frantically. "Please get us out of here! We're trapped!" Owlette sighed in relief.

"I think i have an idea! How many of you are in there?" she asked. A brief pause followed, which she guessed was spent with a headcount, before the answer came.

"Thirteen!" The same voice replied. Owlette nodded to herself. That wouldn't complicate things.

"Alright. I need all of you to back up against the walls!" she instructed through the roof.

"Hurry! It's getting colder in here by the minute!" Owlette didn't intend to waste any time anyway. She flew up and launched a bunch of Super Owl Feathers which landed on the roof of the restaurant, encasing themselves deeply into the spot that wasn't frozen over completely.

She then flew higher and took a dive towards the frozen branch, landing on it with all of her might. That did the trick. The branch broke off and fell on the roof, hitting it exactly where Owlette meant to send it. The red costumed heroine prayed that her plan would work. But upon impact, the branch sent a large, circular part of the roof crashing down into the building with it.

The trapped civilians backed into the walls in fright when they saw this. Understandably so, as you admittedly don't see giant red feathers crashing through the ceiling. And what you certainly don't see everyday is a young, bird themed superhero slowly descending into the building.

"Is everyone alright?" she asked the stunned crowd, who were still far to dumbfounded to reply. They slowly walked up to Owlette, curiously checking her out. They were unsure of what to make of her, until one of them finally broke the silence.

"Did... Did you do this?" asked a teenaged girl. Owlette was confused at first, but then she realized that witnessing her powers in action must have been quite a shock for these people.

"Yes." she told them sheepishly. "Sorry about that, but I had to find a way to get in to get you out."

"Well, you definitely handled getting in." another guest said, looking up at the hole before turning back to her. "But how are you getting us out? Can you like... fly us out of here?" Owlette looked down in thought.

"I guess I could try." she said. After all, she did carry Gekko and Mad Cat with the rubble before. She could probably carry people bigger than her. She flew behind the teen girl and grabbed her under the arms, before taking off, slowly to make sure she got a good grip on her. She then flew through the hole and put her down in front of the building.

"Wow!" the older girl gasped, still under the influence of the brief journey. "That was awesome!" Owlette just smiled.

"Thanks. But now I better go get the others." she then took off and repeated the process twelve more times, getting everyone out one by one. In a minute, all thirteen people trapped in the restaurant were accounted for. Eleven guests and two employees safely outside. Needles to say all of them were eager to get out of there, but not before they looked up to see Owlette about to fly away.

"Just who are you?" one stunned man asked. She turned around and looked down at them, seeing a mix of awe, gratitude and incredulity at the sight of a kid superhero in their eyes.

Having never been exposed to a crowd before, she wasn't sure how to handle the situation, so she decided to keep it simple.

"The name's Owlette!" she announced cheerfully, before taking off in a blast of red light.

* * *

Gekko finally made it out of the park and the scenery of the city without huge layers of ice covering everything was a welcome change. But still, just as Mad Cat said, a few cars at the entrance of the park got caught in the outburst of the Winter Star. He saw a group of firefighters trying to peel the ice off of a frozen car with axes, but as expected, they're efforts were proving futile.

"It's going to take them forever that way." he commented.

"Hey!" he heard a voice calling out to him. Turning towards the direction it came from, he saw another frozen vehicle and walked up to it.

"Hello! Anyone in there?!"

"My family and I are trapped in here and the firefighters didn't notice us! Please tell them we're here!" a male voice shouted back. Gekko smirked to himself.

"I think I have a better solution. Super Gekko Muscles!" his costume lit up and he punched a hole into the frozen car, before using his hands to pick it apart. He was greeted by the dumbstruck faces of a man, a woman and their son. "Are you alright?" he asked. For a while, no one answered, but then the boy broke the silence.

"There's another one?" he asked, greatly confusing Gekko and his parents.

"What do you mean?" the boy looked down for a moment. What he was about to tell could get him into trouble with his parents.

"Henry!" his mother looked at him strictly. Henry winced and decided to spill the beans.

"Last night, Lily got out and I went looking for her." he confessed. The parents were not happy, but before they could scold their son, Gekko best them to it.

"What happened?"

"I found her, but then I was attacked by three werewolf looking creatures. They were about to eat her and then a costumed kid with super speed showed up. He saved my cat and beat the werewolves up." this caught Gekko by surprise.

"He... He did?" If this was true, then that put Mad Cat in a whole different light he and Owlette saw him in. But before he could comment on this further, a group of firefighters ran up to them. They looked at the scene in confusion, before addressing Gekko.

"Kid, how... how did..." Gekko understood their shock, but there was no time for explaining.

"I would gladly explain, but there is no time. If you could take me to the cars that need opening that would be a great help!" the two men exchanged glances. They weren't sure, but since all of their attempts at freeing these people failed and what they just saw this boy do, they might as well give it a shot.

"Ramirez, show him those cars!" the firefighter whom Gekko assumed was the other's superior ordered.

"Thank you." Gekko said sincerely. "Could you get these people to safety?" he asked, gesturing at Henry's family.

"Yes." the man replied before leaving to check on the family. Ramirez then gestured for Gekko to follow him.

It didn't take long. Ramirez and the rest of the firefighters watched in amazement - and a slight bit of embarrassment - as Gekko used his super strength to free everyone. If Gekko wanted to be perfectly honest with himself, ever since becoming a hero, he felt the greatest sense of accomplishment in saving these people. Granted, he wasn't happy they got in trouble in the first place, but tonight he felt like a true superhero, which he didn't feel in a long time.

But as soon as he was done and feed the last of the people, he saw something that almost made his costume go white.

"Gasping Gekkos!" he exclaimed as he saw a wrecked tank truck impaled on ice spikes through the engine which sent sparks flying everywhere and a few spikes also pierced through the tank making the fuel leak out of it. Knowing exactly what this meant, he reached for his communicator.

"Owlette, I need a little help here!" he yelled into it frantically.

"Gekko, calm down!" the girl shouted on the other end. "What happened?"

"It would be better if I showed you! Get here as quick as you can!"

"What is it?" Gekko jumped in surprise as he heard two voices from behind him. He turned around and saw Owlette and Mad Cat standing behind him. Owlette was just as surprised to see that he also got the transmission.

"How did you hear us?" she asked.

"I have my ways." Mad Cat replied. Naturally, he couldn't tell them that he still had his old communicator on the same frequency as theirs without giving himself away. "So what's this about?"

"See for yourself!" Gekko answered, pointing at the tank truck. Both of them instantly realized what this meant.

"Fluttering Feathers!"

"By my cat's whiskers!" Mad Cat slapped his hand over his mouth when he realized what he said. He looked over at Owlette, but fortunately, she did not hear him. She must have been too caught up in her own catchphrase. But he forgot about Gekko, who heard everything and shot a questioning look towards Mad Cat behind the other boy's back.

Owlette flew up to look at the truck and noticed in horror that the driver was trapped inside. The terrified scream she let out was all Mad Cat needed to understand. He quickly analyzed the situation and came up with a plan.

"Alright, listen up! Gekko, lift up that truck above the ice! Owlette, if the fuel catches on fire, use your wings to extinguish it! I'll pull him out!" Gekko moved quickly and lifted up the truck. Mad Cat threw his Super Cat Stripes at the door and yelled at the driver to wrap it around the handle. After he did it, Mad Cat yanked the stripes back and ripped it off. He then ran up to him, grabbed him and pulled him out of the vehicle.

"Hurry!" Owlette yelled when she noticed the sparks reaching the leaking fuel. Mad Cat sped off with the driver and Owlette flew in to grab Gekko. They barely managed to get out before the truck blew up with a deafening explosion. They managed to get far enough from the blast radius and as they were sure Mad Cat put the truck driver down in safety all three of them collapsed to the ground in complete and utter exhaustion.

They got up a few seconds later to a sound they were never expecting. Maybe the explosion was still ringing in their ears, but Connor could have sworn what he heard sounded like applause.

"Are you hearing this too?" he asked the other two. Owlette and Gekko got up with him and noticed that the townspeople - many of them who were of the people they saved earlier - were standing around them and celebrating them. They were clapping, waving and whistling at them. For the first time during their superhero career, this was the first time they got some appretiation. It was an odd, but welcome change. Unsure of what to do, Owlette and Gekko just shyly waved back at the crowd, while Mad Cat did nothing, though, he too enjoyed it.

"You know, I could get used to this." Gekko told Owlette. The girl just rolled her eyes in an amused way before playfully punching him in the shoulder.

* * *

 **Now THIS is what I call 'Saving the day in the night!'**

 **Well, here you have it! The PJ Masks revealed their existence to the public in a GLORIOUS fashion! If only could have experienced this as a whole team like they used to be.**

 **Speaking of which, looks like Gekko is starting to notice some signs about Mad Cat's true identity. And with the scene with Mad Cat and the kids, I wanted to show that no matter how harsh he is, Connor will always be a hero. I hope I've succeeded.**

 **Anyway, I would like to dedicate this chapter as a whole with both parts to my good friend, Bouken Dutch 2.0, who have decided to retire from this site and writing as a whole** **. So long, mate! Thank you for everything you did for this fanfiction archive.**

 **As for the rest of you, stay tuned for the next chapters as the ride is far from over! See you next time!**

 **PS: I made a cover image for this story. It's pretty basic, but that was the best I could do.**


	16. Aftershocks

**Hello there and welcome back to Mad Cat!**

 **Boy, am I glad to be done with the "Saving the Day in the Night" chapters. They were insanely difficult to write and I had a hard time coming up with ideas for the civilian rescuing parts. Usually the ideas just come to me when I'm writing, but this wasn't one of those times.**

 **This chapter will be about bonding between characters as a breather before I get back to more serious stuff. I'm also working on a side project under the working title "Bad to the Bone", which is a series of oneshots about the PJ Masks facing my OC villains. You tell me if that's a good idea or not.**

 **Anyway let's not waste anymore time.**

 **(chapter beginning marking line)**

 **Chapter 15: Aftershocks**

Owlette and Gekko were more than happy to stay behind and answer all of the curious people's questions, but Mad Cat didn't long for public attention. The moment he was sure everyone's attention was on the other two heroes he ran off without anyone noticing and didn't stop until his hideout.

Back at the cave, he entered the wrecked lab and noticed LIA, who was busy setting up a machine of sorts. The robot noticed the young hero entering and looked up from it's work.

"Welcome back, Mad Cat! I believe congratulations are in order for another successful mission." Mad Cat swichted back to Connor before replying with a nod.

"Yeah. The Winter Star is destroyed and I think we've managed save everyone." LIA gave him a question mark on it's monitor in response.

"Did you have assistance? I was under the impression that you work alone. Outside of my mission control services."

"The PJ Masks were there." Connor replied bluntly. "Since your were created by Romeo, I assume you are familiar with them."

"You assume correctly." LIA responded. "You used to be one of them as well. But from what I understand, you've had a falling out."

"Yeah, that's one way to put it." Connor murmured to himself. Wishing to change the subject, he turned to LIA's machine.

"The data from Luna Girl's computer contained one small fragment I have only noticed after you left." the machine explained. "She has access to technology to connect to any satellite around the orbit of the planet. I took the liberty of building a surveillance device and made connection with the nearest satellite to Tarabiscoville which will allow us to get information about anything occurring in the city." It took Connor a few extra seconds to simplify LIA's words in his mind, but once he did, he was genuinely impressed.

"That's awesome! We can see anything that happens in the city?"

"As long as it has public coverage. Allow me to demonstrate." LIA replied, turning on the device. Several small monitors lit up on the machine. They showed only static at first, but after LIA proceeded to fix the connection, several news channels became visible on all of them.

"I thought we didn't have spare monitors." Connor said.

"Not one that is large enough for the lab's main computer, but I have managed to construct several smaller ones from the broken glass I have found around here." LIA explained. Connor looked at the monitors and as he expected, every news channel in the city was busy with covering the appearance of kid superheroes in the city.

"Well, figures." Connor commented in irritation. "Well, at least people around the city will be happy to know they are being protected. By superheros, no less. That should just add to it."

"Indeed." LIA approved. "Curios that I barely see any footage you." Connor scoffed.

"If the PJ Masks want to be public attractions, that's fine by me. But I don't need mass attention." While he couldn't deny that feeling the crowd's cheer made him feel good, he knew they would be far less supportive once they found out how he handles villains. LIA kept observing the screens.

"They seem... very cheerful." it spoke soflty. "They seem happy to be doing this." Connor looked over at the machine, not sure where it was going with this. "Back when I was still working with Romeo, I often wondered how it would feel to assist a heroic cause for a change. Would it feel better than what I was doing back then? Would it make me happier too?" Connor was surprised. He didn't expect his mechanical companion to harbor such inner conflicts.

"You weren't happy working for Romeo?" he asked with concern. LIA kept quiet for a few moments before answering.

"I admit, the use he had for my skills were greatly satisfying. But after helping him in one idiotic, petty villainous scheme after another, I started to lose faith in my creator. I felt like I was nothing more than a tool to be exploited. His little plaything in his stupid games." LIA looked away from the screens and turned around. "Working with you... Working for an actual cause... To keep this city safe and clear of crime... It fills me with greater sense of accomplishment than anything I've ever done for Romeo. But still, I can't help but wonder... What does it feel like to be a hero?" Connor listened carefully. Ever since he left the PJ Masks, he never felt compassion for someone other than the people he saved. But those brief encounters couldn't compare to the bond he developed with LIA. Still, it was odd that a machine was making him feel like this. Connor stepped over to LIA and put an arm on the robot's back.

"But you _are_ a hero." he told it. LIA turned to him with questioning eyes on it's monitor.

"I am?" Connor nodded.

"When we fell into this cave, you healed my wounds and helped me turn this wreck into a livable hideout. You found me food and water down here, you helped me escape Luna Girl's moon base and without you, I couldn't have found a way to destroy the Winter Star. That was all you, LIA. I couldn't have done any of that without you. You are my partner, my hero, but most importantly, you're my friend." he told LIA with a warm smile. LIA scanned Connor's emotions and saw that everything he said was genuine. It was hesitant what to say.

"I... I'm not sure I understand the concept of friendship entirely... at least not yet... But thank you for your kind words, Mad Cat." Connor patted the machine's back reassuringly.

"Please, call me Connor."

"Affirmative. Thank you, Connor."

"Anytime." Connor then yawned. "Now, if you don't mind, I really could use some sleep. Saving the city and probably the entire region from turning into a winter wonderland is exhausting, believe it or not."

"I have already prepared your bed, Connor. Feel free to retire for the night. I will shut down the rest of the hideout."

"That would be great. Thanks." Connor said as he walked to the makeshift bed they set up in a corner. The day's events took their toll on him as he fell asleep almost as soon as he closed his eyes.

 **(scenery change marking line)**

Owlette and Gekko finally managed to get away from their newfound fans. And just in time. They didn't mind to spend time with them, talking about themselves and their powers and their heroic accomplishments, but even they drew the line at interviews. They got back to their HQ to sort out the situation of the PJ Masks being revealed to the public and how will it affect them in the future.

"I say we should probably improve HQ's security and defenses." Owlette said. "People now know about us, some might try to sneak in for one reason or another."

"I don't know, Owlette." Gekko replied as he activated the PJ Picture Player. "They don't know about HQ and I don't think anyone saw us come in here. At least, I didn't see anyone when we came in."

"Think, Gekko. They saw these..." she said as she gestured at the symbols on their chests. "And they are outside on the totem pole as well. People are not stupid." she then turned to the Picture Player. "Still, our most pressing concern should still be tracking down this Catboy impersonator. The profile comparison we started last night should be complete by now. Do we have anything?" Gekko quickly checked the results of the search the Picture Player did on the physical profile of Mad Cat and the boys who went into their school, but the end result was disappointing to say the least.

"Just one match..." he sighed. "It's Connor. And that can't be right for obvious reasons." Owlette buried her face in the palm of her hand. She was very agitated. They were so close catching this impostor and now they were back to square one. Gekko on the other hand started to think. The result and the things he learned about Mad Cat tonight gave him an interesting idea.

"Owlette..." he started, causing the girl to look at him. "Something is not adding up here. I have..." he was not sure how to bring this up. "I have learned a few things about this guy. When I freed the people from their frozen over cars, one of them realized my suit being similar to the Catboy suit. He's met him before and he said he saved him from the Wolfies last night." Owlette looked over at the screen, deep in thought. "And that's not all. When he saw the tank truck we saved the driver from, I heard him exclaiming, "By my cat's whiskers!" in shock!" now that got Owlette's attention.

"Where are you going with this?" she asked. Gekko looked back at the screen. Even he wasn't sure about that.

"I think this guy is somehow connected to Connor." he theorized. A deep silence followed this sentence. The two heroes thoughts were running amok in their heads. Owlette then remembered what happened after they destroyed the Winter Star. She fell down and Mad Cat caught him and for a brief moment, they've made eye contact. One of his eyes was exposed and it looked exactly like those of their dear friend they've lost. She quickly formed her own theory, but decided not to tell Gekko until she was certain.

"Owlette..." Gekko tried to call out to her, but she was too deep in thought. Gekko was getting worried, but then the girl finally broke the silence.

"First thing tomorrow night, we are heading to the place where I've last seen Romeo's lab." she said on a tone that made Gekko realize that arguing with her would be a _really_ bad idea.

"So... we're calling it a night for now?" he asked.

"I think that would be for the best. Our parents must be worried sick by now." Gekko shuddered at the mention of it.

"Ugh, that is a conversation I'm not looking forward to." he said nervously. Facing his angry parents was a scarier thought than facing any villain. And Owlette couldn't help but agree.

"Me neither, but it's coming. Might as well get it over with." she told him before turning around to leave. "Shut the place down and head home. We'll discuss the details of tomorrow's mission in the morning."

"Yes, ma'am, birdy ma'am." Gekko replied half heartedly, fortunately for him, Owlette already left the room by the time he made this comment.

 **(scenery change marking line)**

After a few elegant maneuvers, Owlette landed in her room and transformed back into Amaya. "Now, I need to come up with a story for mom and dad about my disappearance from the festival." she said to herself. What she never expected however, was to get an answer from someone else.

"You better make it good if you don't want to be _caged_." Amaya gasped in shock and turned around to see her sister, Maya standing in the corner of her room with her arms folded and giving her a questioning look. The younger girl was so shocked she didn't even know what to say.

"What... What are you doing here?!" she panicked. Maya scoffed.

"Well, that is a really nice way to greet your worrying sister who came to check on you after everything went crazy in the park." Amaya managed to calm down enough to raise a brow at her sister.

"You came to check on me on your own? There is something your not telling me." after a while Maya eventually rolled her eyes.

"Fine. Mom and dad sent me home to see if you came here while they search for you outside. Amaya sighed in relief. That gave her a perfect explanation vanishing like that. Maybe she could say that after what happened to Connor and how rudely her sister brought it up earlier, she was to heartbroken to the painful memories the festival they always went to together on the past was bringing back and ran home. That could also work for Greg. But one question remained.

"What will it take for you to tell them you found me here on the bed crying over the past?" she asked bitterly. The older sister felt herself getting slightly offended and she glared down Amaya.

"What do you think of me, squirt? That I would rat you out to them and ruin your superhero career just to be a she-dog?" Amaya didn't back down and glared right back.

"I know you love to mess with me, Maya! And you would never miss an opportunity!" Maya sighed. She decided to take a new approach and try to calm her sister down instead of simply arguing it out like usual.

"Look. I know I tease you much, perhaps a little bit more than necessary. But I would never use something this major and serious against you. Mom and dad freak out when you get on your bike without a helmet. This would give them a heart attack." Amaya backed away and looked at her in confusion.

"So... You're not telling them?" Maya shook her head.

"No. I won't. Under one condition." Amaya gulped. She knew this part was coming.

"What is that?" The older girl smiled down at her, but surprisingly, this wasn't her usual mischievous smile that ninety percet of the time meant trouble for Amaya. This was a warm, genuine smile that she never saw on her face before.

"You're telling _me_ everything about this!" Amaya surprised herself when she returned the smile.

"You're a little curious for your own good."

"Hey, can you blame me? I just found out that not only are there superheroes in this city even younger than me, but one of them is my sister? How could I not be?" Amaya chuckled.

"Yeah, maybe from now on, you'll actually start taking me seriously."

"Ha! In your dreams, squirt! You may be a superhero, but you're always going to be my baby sister." Maya laughed as she put Amaya in a headlock and gave her a noogie. The younger girl struggled to escape, but she was not strong enough outside her Owlette suit. Maya then threw her on her bed and sat up next to hereagerlyawaiting her tale about Owlette and the PJ Masks and Amaya told her about everything, of course, without giving away Greg. They talked about how she got her powers, HQ, flying the Owl Glider, the nighttime villains and of course, all of their adventures. It lasted hours, but they didn't even notice. This was perhaps the first time they were actually bonding as sisters.

Eventually both of them felt today's events taking their toll on them and they both fell asleep. They didn't even notice their parents arriving back home and peek into the room to see them sleeping peacefully and cuddled together on Amaya's bed.

 **(scenery change marking line)**

Connor woke up in a place he was quite sure was not the one he fell asleep in. And he was also quite sure that he didn't fall asleep in his Mad Cat suit. Yet here he was. Dressed as Mad Cat and standing in a place that looked like the PJ Masks' HQ but with two notable differences. The entire place was trashed and everything was lit in a dark red light. Mad Cat was not one to scare easily like Catboy, but this sight was enough to unnerve him.

"What is this place?"

Suddenly, there was a blinding white flash, so bright that Mad Cat had to cover his eyes. After a while, he could see the light dissipate and he let his hands down but what he saw was something he simply couldn't bring himself to believe. From where the elevator was supposed to be, a figure emerged. A figure Mad Cat knew all too well. It was a person he knew was perfectly harmless, but seeing them again frightened him beyond all belief. Standing before him was none other than the figure of Amaya.

"This... This cannot be." he said to himself, shaking his head and rubbing his eyes. But no matter how hard he tried to make it go away, it stayed right in front of his face, staring at him with no expression. Finally, he accepted what he was seeing and addressed the apparition.

"How are you here?" he growled from between his teeth, grasping his head and looking down. His head then shot up and he glared at her. "What are you doing here, Amaya?!" he roared into her face. The apparition in front of her remained perfectly calm and still. After a few seconds, it finally spoke.

"I am not Amaya." it spoke on Amaya's voice, but it was somehow different. It echoed through the room with authority and firmness. There was no room for argument or contradiction in it. "I am the subconscious reflection of your deepest, fondest desire. Your desire to return to your old life and your friends. The fact that I have appeared Amaya's image can only mean one thing." Mad Cat immediately realized what she was talking about.

"No..." he muttered, grasping his head. "No! No! NO! It doesn't mean anything! Shut up!" he yelled as he started pacing up and down frantically.

"I take it you understand what I mean." Desire spoke. "And what is it about me taking up Amaya's appearance that causes you such fear?" it asked tauntingly. "Is it because I am your greatest weakness?"

"Shut up." Mad Cat snarled through his teeth.

"You may have clouded Connor's mind with your lies, but it won't last long you know. No matter what you do, you will never be as strong as me. You will never overcome Connor's affection towards Amaya."

"Shut. Up."

"And you are afraid. Because you will lose control over the body and you won't be able to do anything against it. Because compared to me, you are _nothing._ "

"SHUT UP!" Mad Cat roared, raising his fist to punch Desire, but his fist went straight through the apparition. This angered him even further. He tried it again and again, only to get the same result. Eventually, he got tired and collapsed to the ground, panting heavily. Desire stared at him for a while before speaking again and turning around to leave.

"Enjoy your fuming. I shall leave you to it." it spoke calmly.

"NO!" Mad Cat cried out, causing her to stop and turn her head back at him. Then the most astounding thing happened. Mad Cat crawled over to Desire and wrapped his arms around her legs. "Don't go! Stay! Stay with me!" he sobbed. He felt something rising in him. Desire was right. The longing for his old life, for his friends and family, but most of all, to be at Amaya's side again was so strong that it overcame everything. Even his rage. He didn't even care that the apparition in front of him wasn't the real Amaya. It was the closest he could get right now.

Desire looked down at Mad Cat. Upon seeing him like this, her attitude changed completely. She knelt down next to Mad Cat and pulled him into a hug. She let the cat costumed boy sobbing into her shoulder as she rubbed his back. After a while, the boy calmed down and Desire pulled away to look into his eyes.

"There is only one way you can make this right. And only you can do it, no one else." she spoke softly. The boy looked down.

"I can't go back. Not after what happened. Not after what I did." he said in despair. Desire put a hand to his chin and gently raised his head to look at her again. She then used her other hand to reach for Mad Cat's wrist to turn off his powers, which the boy surprisingly allowed. Dark blue eyes met crimson red and for a while, nothing was said. The two simply leaned forward and their foreheads touched. Connor felt complete and utter peace. He wanted to feel this again, but he couldn't possibly go back to his own life after everything that happened. But how much he wished it. He desired it more than anything. For one reason and one reason alone.

"I love you." Desire pulled away again.

"You have to make a choice. Soon. Or else it will be too late. And I'm sure you will be able to. Your feelings for Amaya are stronger than anything else inside you. It will defeat Rage. It is only a matter of time." she told him with an encouraging smile. "Just make sure it doesn't take too much time. But now, I have to go." Connor reached out for her again, not wanting her to leave. Desire chuckled. "Don't worry. I'm not leaving you. I will always be with you. In here." she said, placing her hand on Connor's chest before disappearing. The only thing left after her was the change of scenery. The place was now perfectly in order and no longer covered in that bright red light. It was the usual color of the PJ Masks HQ and even though it was only in his subconsciousness, for a while, Connor felt at home.

 **(chapter ending marking line)**

 **Sorry about the lines separating the segments of the chapter. I'm uploading from my phone and the one thing I can't do here is pulling a line between chapters and this was my best idea.**

 **Anyway, I hope you liked it. Looks like Connor's subconsciousness is not done with him yet, but from now on it will be his rage against his desire for his old life, especially Amaya. I'm still not sure about the endgame pairings, though.**

 **Anyway, thanks for reading it! If you liked it, be sure to drop a review and even if you didn't, constructive criticism is welcome!**

 **See ya next time! :)**


	17. Evolving

**Hey, guys! Sorry for the long wait, exam period was murder this summer. I planned a longer chapter that included Amaya's birthday, but that would have taken more time and I wanted to give you guys a sign that I was still alive.**

 **I've already wasted enough of your time, I don't want to wast anymore. Let's dive right into...**

* * *

 **Chapter 16: Evolving**

The last thing Amaya remembered was falling asleep cuddled up with her sister after they spent the night discussing everything about her superhero life. So it was pretty weird to wake up by herself, leaning against the wall of her room instead of her pillow and under the covers. Not to mention, suspicious. Based on experience, she instantly put her mind in alarm mode. She knew Maya well enough to know when she was up to something and if she snuck away like that while she was still sleeping, that almost certainly meant she was. And Amaya was quickly proven correct.

"Wake up, super squirt! It's your birthday!" Maya yelled as she burst into her room with surprising speed and threw a water balloon at her younger sister. She probably didn't expect Amaya to be awake already, but since she was, she knew what to do. With surprising speed, she ducked and see the balloon flying past her head. She saw the end of the balloon where Maya tied it together and managed to grab it midair before it hit the wall. She then threw it back at the older girl, who was caught off guard and ended up being the victim of her own prank.

Satisfied, Amaya hopped off of her bed and walked up to her drenched sister. "Water balloon? Really?" she asked incredulously. Maya just smirked, despite the embarrassing situation.

"Gotta respect the classics." she replied. "And I was going to do you a favor by taking care of your morning shower. Speaking of which, you really need to take one." she deadpanned as she took a sniff of Amaya. The younger girl rolled her eyes.

"Well, since _you_ obviously don't need one anymore, I'm calling dibs on the bathroom." she declared, grabbing a towel and walking out of the room. She was halfway on her way out, when she heard her sister speak.

"Where are your glasses?" Amaya turned back to her with a confused look.

"What do you mean? They're right he..." she reached up to touch her glasses, but she was surprised to find that she was not wearing them. But what surprised her even more was that she was able to see perfectly without them. She walked back to her bed and picked up her abandoned glasses, examining them curiously. It was the first time she saw them this clear. Maya saw the younger girl was dumbstruck,but she eventually got tired of it and lightly smacked the back of her head to get her attention.

"How could you catch the balloon without your glasses? You're much more like a bat than an owl without them." she quipped. Amaya would have rolled her eyes at her antics, but what she just said made her think. Maya noticed her sister's enlightened expression and immediately knew what was up. "What? Does this have anything to do with that superpower mumbo-jumbo you told me about last night?" she asked. Amaya wasn't sure, but she decided not to dwell on it for the time being.

"Maybe. I'll figure it out later. In the meantime, please don't mention this to mom and dad. It would be weird to explain how my eyesight was fixed by itself from one day to another."

"You got it, squirt." Maya said encouragingly. "You already have plenty of explaining to do as it is." she added. Amaya's expression changed to worried, remembering that she still hasn't been confronted by her parents about her disappearance from the festival last night. Maya noticed her expression and patted her sister's shoulder in reassurance. "Hey, don't sweat it. I'm sure they'll go easy on you on your birthday. You just go ahead and wash up and I'll try to ease the tension a little before the talk." she said with a wink before walking out of the room. Amaya shot her a grateful smile, before she headed towards the bathroom.

* * *

Connor had the most pleasant sleep in quite a while. After revisiting his subconsciousness last night where he finally got his head straight after the chaos his mind has been for the past few days and seeing Amaya again outside her Owlette persona felt like the first step towards peace. Therefore, it was a particularly unpleasant awakening when his dreams were disturbed by a loud, creaking noise, which was growing stronger and stronger by every second. Eventually, Connor had to wake up and cover his ears as he went about, looking for the source of the sound. He eventually tracked it to the new surveillance machine LIA set up the other day.

While Connor himself had no idea how the machine was supposed to work, he didn't like the sound of that voice one bit. He turned around to see his mechanical assistant sitting in a corner, deactivated. It did that to itself when it's work was done for the night and it was sure Connor would turn it on when he needed assistance. The boy walked up to the robot and reactivated it. LIA's screen lit up with the machine's usual, intelligent expression and turned to Connor.

"Good Morning, Connor. How may I be of assistance?" Connor had to cover his ears, because the voice was getting really unbearable by that point.

"There is something wrong with your new machine. It's making some weird noises. You should check it out." he explained. LIA immediatley stood up and walked over to the machine, but no matter how much it circled around it, it couldn't detect the source of the voice Connor was talking about.

"I'm afraid I can't detect it. Could you point me to the source where you are hearing the voice from?" it wasn't easy, but he could put up with the voice long enough to track it to the bottom of it's right side.

"There!" he pointed at it, before covering up his ears once again. LIA still couldn't detect it, but it saw how much it troubled Connor, so it knew something was up. There was a panel on the side where Connor pointed at. When LIA opened it, the expression on it's monitor was replaced with a huge red exclamation mark. Two wires were disconnected from each other and there were large sparks jumping out of them. And the machine was turned on all night. Good thing it didn't start a fire! LIA quickly fixed the problem and shut the panel closed again.

"I don't know how I didn't notice that. I am grateful that you brought it to my attention. Although, I am curious as well. The sound the sparking made was at a level that is almost inaudible to human audioreceptors. Even mine didn't pick it up." LIA pointed out. Connor removed his hands from his ears to think about what the little robot just said.

"I'm not... Ugh!" Connor groaned as he covered his ears again. Even his own voice sounded muchh louder than usual.

"What's the matter?" LIA asked with a question mark on it's monitor.

"I don't know." Connor said on a quieter voice that he found bearable and knew LIA was able to detect. "Every single sound I hear is much louder than usual." LIA used her scanners on Connor, but detected nothing unusual.

"Medically, I detect nothing out of the ordinary. Though, if you would allow me, a more thorough examination might provide an answer to your condition." the machine suggested. While the word 'examination' didn't sound very appealing, Connor didn't like the idea of going about his day without knowing what was happening to him, so he reluctantly agreed.

* * *

Amaya walked out of the bathroom fully dressed and ready for the day ahead. This should be an easy day for her. A pleasant one, in fact, as it was her birthday. She knew she should have been excited, but if she wanted to be honest, after the events of the past few days, she was just thankful to catch a break. But apparently that break won't be much less stressful than the previous ones.

Ever since she stepped out of the shower, she found that her eyes became much more sensitive. She had to shower with her eyes closed and dressing up wasn't exactly easy either. She didn't know what was happening to her, but she knew she had to do something about it. And she already knew who could help her out. She walked back to her room and grabbed her walkie-talkie.

"Greg, are you there?" she waited for a few moments for the blond boy to reply.

"Roger!" came the response from the other end. "What's up? Time to plan tonight's mission already?"

"Later." Amaya answered. "For now, come over and bring me a pair of sunglasses."

"Sunglasses?" came Greg's stunned response." What for?"

"Just do it." Amaya replied firmly. "I'll explain everything once you arrive." Greg quickly got over his shock when he heard the firmness in the girl's voice.

"Right. I'll be over as soon as I can."

"Thanks. See you in a few." she said, signing off. Before she could put the walkie-talkie down, she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned around to see her sister standing behind her.

"It's time, squirt. I stalled them the best I could, but the folks want to talk to you with no more delays." she said. Amaya sighed. This is gonna be a tough conversation.

* * *

Connor sat on a chair in the middle of his and LIA's hideout with several wires wrapped around his wrists, ankles, waist and head. The wires were connected to LIA's body and the little robot were running all sorts of medical tests on the boy. After a few minutes, LIA walked up to him and freed him of the wires.

"So, what did you find?" he asked.

"One moment, please, I'm processing the data." LIA didn't need much time or to print the date for it to examine, It quickly put everything together inside it's artificial mind. "Medically, I still don't detect anything unusual, however, I took the liberty of examining the bracelet which allows you to transform and I the radiation it emits when you are in your superhero form seems to be active even when you aren't." "LIA explained. Connor looked at his bracelt thoughtfully before turning back to LIA.

"So, I have powers even when I'm not Catboy?" he asked. LIA's monitor once again displayed a question mark.

"Catboy? Did you change the name of your alter-ego once again during the night?" Connor realized what he just said and started sheepishly rubbing the back of his head. Apparently, the mental discussion he had with his desire last night was taking it's affect on him already.

"Uh,,, no, I didn't. I meant Mad Cat. It's just I'm still not used to the name change. It's only been a few days after all." he explained. LIA scanned Connor and could immediately tell he was lying. Maybe it should tell him about it's ability to read the emotions of people around it and could tell when they were lying, but it decided not to push it at the moment.

"Anyway, my theory would be that your powers are evolving and they are starting to slightly affect you civilian self as well." Connor's eyes widened when he heard that. He suddenly remembered his fight against the ninjalinos last night and remembered moving and fighting faster and stronger than usual. Looks like LIA was right. His powers WERE evolving. The thought both excited and scared him. LIA sensed his discomfort and went to touch his shoulder.

"Not to worry. Your body will more than likely adapt to the change. In the meantime, I can make you a pair of noise canceling implants that will keep sounds around you bearable until you get used to it." Connor smiled at his mechanical companion.

"That would be great LIA! You're really are my hero." he said, smacking the back of the robot and immediately regretting it when he remembered who he was dealing with. LIA's monitors changed to happy eyes from the compliment.

"Anytime, Connor." it responded before taking off to make the implants. Connor sat back on the chair to watch the machine work. It took some time though and he got a bit bored. It wasn't like he could go anywhere to let off some steam, given that he was supposed to be M.I.A. and he was stuck in this cave in the middle of nowhere. Sure LIA was great company, but half of the time, he couldn't make out what it was saying due to the complicated technical terms it insisted on using. He found himself almost missing the babble of PJ Robot. At least that didn't make him feel stupid.

"Man, one could go crazy being stuck down in here." he said, rubbing his face in frustration. "I completely lost my touch with the world. What day it is today anyway?"

"November 27th." LIA replied casually without looking up from it's work.

"Thanks." Connor said monotonously. His bored expression changed to shocked however when he realized what that meant. _'Amaya's birthday.'_ He thought for a while and didn't even notice when LIA walked up to him. He only noticed that the robot placed the implants in his ears.

"Ouch." he jumped from the pain and alarm.

"I apologize." LIA said, before handing a small device to him with a switch on it. "With this switch, you can set how much sound you let pass. It should be easy to find the tolerable frequency." Connor took the device in his hand and started rolling the switch until he found the perfect frequency that made his sense of hearing sound like it was normal. With that taken care of, only one thing was left in his mind.

"Do you think I could take it to a test drive outside?" he asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Into the city..." he muttered nervously.

"I don't think that would be wise. The whole of Tarabiscoville is on the lookout for you." LIA stated.

"I know... but, there is something I just need to do there." he explained. After a few minutes of silence, LIA eventually spoke.

"Well, it's not like you need my authorization. If you want to go, then go. But I would advise extreme caution."

"Got it, thanks." Connor said as he took the device in his hand and switched his usual shirt to a hoodie he found in one of the closets down there. It was time to pay a visit to some old ghosts.

* * *

 **AN: Thank you for your patience! Hope you liked it!**

 **Next time: Well... I'm still not sure. Connor goes to see Amaya again, but tries to stay in the shadows and some conflicting feelings arise in both him and Greg about a certain birthday girl. But other than that, I'm not yet sure what will happen. But don't worry, I will come up with something!**

 **Stay tuned for: Chapter 17: Old Ghosts.**


	18. Old Ghosts

**AN: Hey, guys! I'm finally back! Sorry for the long delay, you see, I started working on this chapter two times in the past and everytime I ended up losing the progress I made which demoralized me so much that I didn't want to try again for a time. But now it's finally finished!**

 **Like I promised, Connor will attend Amaya's birthday party, but if you want to know what happens there, you'll have to read this chapter! So... Have fun with it!**

 **Chapter 17: Old Ghosts**

After a thorough scolding from her parents, Amaya headed straight for the door and waited for Greg to arrive. She wasn't an inpatient person, but she couldn't help but mentally urge him to hurry up as she paced in front of the door in frustration. Her improving vision was becoming more and more difficult to bear. Finally, she heard someone knock on the door and she went to open it. The sudden light entering her eyes was not pleasant to deal with, but she sighed in relief when she saw the blond boy standing there.

"What took you so long?" she asked in announce. "You literally live next door for crying out loud!" Greg was taken aback by the less than cordial greeting, but after he got over it, he frowned at the girl.

"Well, good morning to you too! Do you have any idea how hard it is to dig up sunglasses from your closet at the end of November?" he asked as he held up the pair he brought her. "What do you need these for anyway? And where are your regular glasses?" Amaya couldn't even answer because the light from outside was stinging her eyes so much she had to turn away and cover them. Greg noticed this and his anger quickly turned to concern.

"Hey, you're okay?" he asked as he ran up to her and put a hand on her shoulder. Amaya groaned in agony.

"Just come in, I'll tell you everything. And close the door please." Greg did as he was told and escorted Amaya into her room, by the time they got there, Amaya managed to pull herself together. She looked up at Greg and took the sunglasses from him.

"Thanks. I needed that." she told him. Greg looked utterly confused.

"And why exactly?" he asked. Amaya sighed before sitting down on her bed and gesturing for Greg to join her.

"I know it's going to sound unbelievable, but... I think my Owl Eyes work during the day as well. I see much clearer but my eyes are also more sensitive." she told him as he sat down next to her. She looked up at Greg, waiting for a response. Truth be told, she expected him to flip and ask about every detail, but she was surprised to see him not even flinching when she shared this revelation. He just gave a definite nod and said, "I see." Amaya stated in surprise.

"What, that's it?" Greg just shrugged.

"After everything that happened to us since we got our powers, is this really that surprising?" he said calmly. Amaya had to agree that he had a point. "I'm more interested than surprised. Interested in what does this mean for us." Amaya thought for a while, but she couldn't come up with a satisfying conclusion.

"I don't really know. But we'll have to be very careful. If our powers can activate during the day, I don't really want to float away before my parents." Greg winced upon hearing that.

"Yes. That would be a hard situation to explain yourself out of. Still, it could be worse if it happened in front of your sister. Can you imagine that?" Greg asked with a laugh. Amaya grimaced. She wasn't sure if she should tell Greg that her sister had found out about her superhero identity. Granted, she made sure she didn't give him away, but still, perhaps she should tell him.

"Uh... Actually... About that..." she tried, but Greg interrupted her.

"Hey, I wonder what does that mean for me! Like, maybe I'll become a little stronger during the day?" he wondered. Amaya chuckled and rolled her eyes.

"I'm pretty sure that's not how it works. It seems that only my super sense sharpened and you don't have one." Greg looked at her playfully.

"Is that so?" he asked before reaching to grab Amaya's hand.

"Sorry." she said teasingly. "It's as soft as ever." Greg raised an eyebrow at her.

"Oh, really? Well, how about this?" he then stepped of the bed and pulled on Amaya's arm, pulling her along with him. But before she fell, Greg caught her by the waist and pulled her close to him. "Is that soft too?" Amaya chuckled.

"It is actually, but there's nothing wrong with that." she replied tenderly, looking him in the eye. And in that moment, when Greg looked deep into her dark brown eyes for the first time ever without her glasses, he felt some unexplainable warmth in his cheeks and his chest.

"I... I don't know how I've never noticed that before." he whispered quietly, but still strong enough for her to hear.

"Noticed what?" Amaya asked, smiling back at him affectionately. Greg kept staring into her eyes for a little longer, before finally responding.

"You have beautiful eyes." he said, completely unaware of himself. Amaya gasped in surprise and blushed. She didn't know what to say, so instead she just looked down.

"Th... Thank you." she managed to mutter after a few seconds. Greg was afraid that she will slap him or push him away, but she did neither of these things. She didn't want to. Amaya didn't want to admit, but the things Greg said and his closeness... they felt very nice. And Greg meant every word he said. He had been harboring this secret for a while now, but he had always thought Amaya was the prettiest girl he had ever laid his eyes on. He just never dared to say anything about it because even the blind could see the attraction between her and Connor. But now that Connor was... gone... maybe he could...

Greg shook his head and stepped away from her. What was he thinking? Even though Connor was no longer here, it still felt like going behind his back. Not only that, but Amaya's life was already stressful enough as it is and she was still having a hard time getting over the death of their friend. He did not need to complicate things further for her. But on the other hand, he also saw the positive effects that his presence and his closeness seemed to have on the girl. He felt like he was helping her recover and to move on easier. And if that was the case, then he was more than happy to keep it up. There was nothing he could do for Connor now, but he could still make Amaya happy.

Amaya notice the troubled look on her blonde friend's face and she did not like it. "What's wrong?" she asked as she put a hand on his shoulder. Greg smiled back at her blissfully.

"Nothing." he whispered, brushing off her hand of his shoulder and taking it into his. "Everything is just fine." the look he was giving her made Amaya smile too.

"Thank you, Greg. You helped me so much lately. I don't know how I would have kept myself together without you." she said. Greg took her other hand in his too and gently squeezed them both.

"You don't have to thank me. I will always be here for you. I promise." Amaya's smile softened. The look she was giving him now was very warm and affectionate. Greg was enjoying it, but it was also starting to make him a little nervous. He looked away to the side awkwardly which made Amaya chuckle. Greg let go of her hands and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. He turned away from the girl and that was the moment when he noticed something strange in the window.

"Hey, what's that?" he asked as he pointed there. Amaya turned there and something glued to the glass. She raised her eyes in suspicion.

"I don't know." she walked over to the window and opened it to see what was there. Her eyes widened when she saw the substance that held the the object to it. "Greg, this is a piece of sticky splat!" she exclaimed. Alarmed, Greg ran over to her side to see it for himself.

"It's holding something against the glass." he told her. And indeed, upon closer look, Amaya saw a piece of paper under the sticky matter. Cautiously, she pulled it off the window and her eyes widened in excitement when she saw what it was.

"It's my signed, collector's edition Flossy Flash comic I lost on a mission a few weeks ago!" she exclaimed before throwing the glue away and holding it to her chest. Greg just shot her a deadpan look.

"Really? You still take comics to the missions?" he wondered. Amaya blushed slightly and looked down sheepishly.

"What can I say? Old habits die hard." she explained. "One of the ninjalinos stole it when..." then it hit her. She held the comic in front of her and looked at it with a soft smile.

"When what?" Greg asked. Amaya didn't answer, instead she got off the bed, picked up the sticky splat that held the comic to the window and inspected it closely. She was so excited about her comic that she didn't even notice a note attached to it, simply saying, "Thanks". She then showed it to Greg.

"Thanks?" he read it out loud in surprise. "Thanks for what?" Amaya chuckled at her friend's confusion. He didn't know about how she saved Night Ninja and his ninjalinos from the Winter Star. She will tell him about it, but later. Right now, she wanted to enjoy this moment. How she needed this couldn't be overstated. How ironic that during these depressing times, it was one of her biggest enemies that made her feel this again. These were the small moments that made her superhero job worth all the trouble.

(scene change)

This was a bad idea. Actually no, scratch that, this was a horrible idea. If there ever will be an olympics for horrible ideas, this one will win every gold medal. But he needed this. He needed this so much. Every single brain cell in his head was objecting against what he was planning to do, but even their combined might was nothing against the need that was driving his actions now.

Amaya. That was the only thing that mattered. The only thing he cared about at the moment. He wasn't thinking. All he knew was he needed to see her at any cost. Even the haunting memories that would have been triggered by seeing his parents' house again have evaded him. All he could focus was the girl of her affections. He walked down the sidewalk, his hands buried in the pockets of the brown hoodie he took from his lair, the hood concealing his face. In fact, he had trouble seeing where he was going because of that thing, and the implant LIA put in his ear was also bothering him due to interferences and minor malfunctions. He'll really have to tell the robot that the device was not working fully well yet. But as he got closer and closer to the three houses that looked all too familiar to him, all of these things began to bother him less and less. And eventually they ceased to bother him altogether.

As he was getting closer to Amaya's house, he needed no Owl Eyes to see the party decorations in the window. As he expected, many of them were Flossy Flash themed. He couldn't help but smile to himself. Some things never change. But suddenly, this reminded him of something. There was something that he needed to do. And if he thought coming back to the city on Amaya's birthday was crazy, this next idea he just had made it look like the most sensible decision in history.

Taking a glance at the house of his parents, he sneaked up to the door and placed his ear on it. Turning off the implant LIA gave him, he listened to any movement inside and he was relieved to hear absolutely nothing. No one was home. He then looked down to see the doormat, knelt down and lifted it up. To his delight, their parents still kept the spare key there. He wasted no time in opening the door and heading upstairs towards him old room. When he entered, he saw that curiously enough, his room has been kept clean and tidy since his disappearance. It must have been a way of coping. But Connor didn't care about that right now. There was only one thing he could bring himself to care about.

He knelt down next to his bed, lifted the blanket and pulled out a small box. He opened it and stared down at it's content for a few seconds before pulling it out. It was a large owl plush, particularly the one that Amaya wanted so much from the local toy store. He's been saving his allowance for about two months to get it. And he also colored the plush red and drew the Owlette symbol onto it's chest. Around the neck of the plush was a Flossy Flash themed birthday card and on it's back was a massage.

 _On this card, you see the second best Superheroine in the world._

 _This gift will always remind you of who is number one._

Connor smiled. This had to be the best gift he can ever give her. If only he could give it to Amaya personally. If only he could see her face when she opens it. He sighed sadly. This was the first time he found a drawback in being his new self. And something inside him told him it won't be the last.

(scene change)

Amaya and Greg spent the rest of the morning in the girl's room, discussing the events of the past day. Amaya was forced to put on the sunglasses Greg brought her because as time passed and the sunlight was increasing in strength, it began hurting her eyes more and more. Suddenly, they were interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Yes?" Amaya called. The door opened to reveal her father standing there.

"Sweetie, it's time to come down. The guest will arrive soon and we can't start the party without the birthday girl." he told her, before noticing the unusual accessory. "Um… why are you wearing sunglasses at the end of November?" he asked. The two kids looked at each other, trying to come up with an explanation.

"Uh... she's gotten blind." Greg blurted out without much thinking. Roger stared at him in confusion and Amaya elbowed him in the side.

"Nitwit." she muttered. She remembered what she and her sister agreed upon about what will they tell their parents about her disappearance from the festival last night and she knew exactly what she should say.

"It's just… my eyes are still a little red about crying so much last night and I don't want anyone to see them." her father frowned in concern, but eventually nodded in understanding. "Go on. We will be downstairs soon." Roger left the room and Greg turned to the girl.

"The red eyes explanation for long, you know." Amaya sighed.

"I know. We'll have to think of something."

"Want me to blind you for real?" Greg joked.

"I'm going to punch you." Amaya replied warningly. Greg just chuckled, and eventually the girl joined in.

"Shall we go now?" he asked after a few minutes of laughter. Amaya just nodded and the two jumped off the bed and started heading towards the door, but Greg suddenly stopped. "And for what it's worth, even if your eyes would be so red from crying, it wouldn't make them any less beautiful to me." he said before running out of the room, leaving a stunned and furiously blushing Amaya behind.

(scene change)

Connor made his way out of the house with the box under his arm and locked the door, placing the key back under the doormat. He made sure that everything was back in it's place to make it look like he was never in there. Before he could walk away from the building, he noticed a crowd of children carrying fancily wrapped up boxes. He instantly recognized them as his old classmates and he quickly figured it out that they were going to Amaya's birthday party. He waited until they passed the stone fence around Amaya's house and ran up to it. Peeking around it, he saw even more kids gathering in front of the entrance. Their entire class has been invited. Taking advantage of the sudden situation, he pulled the hood over his head and sneaked up to them with skill that would have made his superhero namesake proud. The kids were too busy chatting with each other to notice him.

Amaya's mom came up to the gate and unlocked it, greeting the party guests with a warm smile. "Hi, kids! Please come in! The party's about to start!" They didn't need to be told twice. All of them walked in. Connor made sure he was in the middle of the crowd where he would not be detected.

Inside, Greg just made his way down the stairs where he was greeted by Maya.

"Where's my sister, squirt?" she questioned.

"She's on her way." he replied casually. Maya nodded.

"Good. Let her deal with the squirt invasion about to commence. It's bad enough that I have to put up with you guys all the time, but now we're having a whole class of you over?! If she wasn't my sister, I'd be so outta here for the day." she grumbled. Greg smirked cheekily.

"Oh, Maya, if it frustrates you so much… that just makes it even better." he replied walking away. The older girl glared after him, but suddenly came up with the best comeback.

"Hey, think you could get one of your costumed friends to entertain these kids? I bet they would love that. Especially after last night." Greg stopped dead in his tracks and turned pale when he heard that. He slowly turned back to Maya, who had a very satisfied look on her face when she saw the hilariously nervous expression he was giving her.

"Uh, wha... what are you talking about?" before Maya could answer, the discussion was interrupted by Amaya walking down to them.

"Hey, Maya." she greeted before looking over at her friend and immediately noticing the look on his face. "Greg, what's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost!" Maya chuckled behind her as Greg grabbed Amaya's hand and pulled her away. "Hey, watch it!" Amaya yelled, struggling to keep her balance. Greg pulled her into the living room and looked around to see if the coast was clear before turning back to her.

"Did you... Did you ever get even the faintest of clues that your sister might know about the... J-Pay Asks-May?" he asked nervously. Amaya was confused at first, but eventually she understood.

"Oh." she said bluntly in realization. "I wanted to talk to you about this. She... kinda... saw me flying into my room and transform back last night." she confessed. Greg dropped his jaw, but his wonder soon turned to anger.

"And you also told her I was Gekko?!" Amaya raised her hands in defense.

"No, I didn't! I made sure not to give away your identity!"

"Then how does she know?" Greg asked sharply.

"You just told me, squirt." the kids jumped in surprise and turned to see Maya standing next to them smiling smugly. Greg's eyes widened and he just stood still for a moment before the reality of how he was tricked sank in and he smacked his forehead. Maya tried to keep up her smug expression, but eventually burst out laughing. "Oh, boy! You're just too easy!" Greg and Amaya just stared at her in annoyance for a few seconds before the boy broke the silence.

"She knows who we are. Guess we'll have to kill her." he deadpanned. Before Amaya could respond, she heard the doorbell. She sighed.

"We'll kill her later. Right now, let's get this party started." As Amaya went to the door, Maya tapped Greg on the shoulder to get his attention.

"Hey, squirt, where's your birthday present to Amaya?" she asked. Greg's eyes widened in alarm.

"Oh, sniveling serpents! I was so focused on getting her the sunglasses she asked for that I forget to bring it over! Good thing I live next door. I just run home and get it." he followed Amaya to the front door, but didn't get there in time to avoid their friends swarming in. As he struggled to get past them, he ended up bumping shoulders with a boy who gave him a strange feeling. He was slightly taller than him, wearing blue trousers and a brown hoodie with the hood up and concealing his face. Greg narrowed his eyes in thought when he saw him. He never saw him before, but he still felt strangely familiar. But Greg had no time to reflect on that as he needed to get Amaya's present and he only got a good look at this boy for a split second.

Muttering a quick apology, he turned away from her and left the house. Connor already had the memory rush from seeing Greg from the first time since the accident, so he recovered faster and just headed inside. He's not going to stay for long anyway. He'll just throw off the present and leave. As the crowd of kids he blended in with split up, he melted into the background and waited for the right to deliver the package.

As he tried to remain as unnoticable as possible, he scanned the room for the birthday girl. Since everyone had come to give her their greetings and gifts, it was not particularly difficult to spot her. The guests were all standing in a half circle around the center of the living room and on the middle of them, there was her. Connor tried to stay in the background as much as he could, but he could still see her perfectly. This was the first time he had seen her as Amaya ever since the accident and not even the sunglasses she was wearing could ruin the total image.

Connor was slightly confused as to why was she wearing them, but then he realized it must have been the same reason he used his implants. Her super senses must have been evolving too. He heard some of the guests asking her about it and she told them her eyes were a little red from crying after last night at the festival reminded her so much of Connor. Connor felt his heart drop when he heard that. In that moment, all he wanted to do was to walk up to her, pull her in a hug and tell her that he was there for her and always will be. Even if her eyes were really that red from crying, he was sure there were just as pretty as he remembered.

But then he remembered that she was just using it as an excuse to hide the change she was going through because of her powers and keep her superhero identity hidden. That realization caused some of the resentment he held for her costumed alter ego to resurface. The fact that she just was using him like that made him shoot her an angry scowl. Was she even missing him like she claimed? She had abandoned him in Romeo's lab after all. As did Gekko. He hated her for it, but at the same time, he hated himself even more. He hated himself for trying to hate Amaya. He hated himself for not being able to hate her. But above all else, he hated himself for still loving her.

Connor shook his head. This was no time to deal with his inner struggles. Peeking out from behind the armchair he was hiding behind and when he was sure no one was looking, he slipped the gift he inteintended to give Amaya in it. He then turned around to see an open window behind him and after taking one last look around to make sure no one was looking, he climbed out on it and left the property.

But he did not make it very far...

As he passed the house of his parents again, he felt something pull on the back of his hoodie rather forcefully. Or rather _someone_. His Mad Cat instincts kicked in and he elbowed his assailant in the stomach, before turning around and punching them in the face. To his surprise, he saw none other than the boy he bumped into on his way to the party, his former friend and college, Greg. He didn't even stagger when he punched him. Connor assumed a fighting stance, but Greg just glared at him.

"So I was right last night." he said. Connor just raised an eyebrow in confusion, before realizing that his hood was no longer on his head. Greg managed to pull it off. And so here he was. Face to face with one of his fellow PJ Masks, but for the first time since he became Mad Cat, they knew who he was. Connor was unsure how he should react, mainly because he was also unsure how he felt at the moment, but in the end, he simply returned the other boy's expressionless look.

"Funny just how much of an effect a slip of tongue can have." he replied, knowing exactly what Greg was referring to. The two boys eyed each other silently for a few seconds. In the end it was Connor who broke the silence. "I assume you have questions." Greg kept staring for a few more moments, trying to find the best way to respond before answering.

"What I have is a very strong urge to go 'Super Gekko Muscles' on your furry behind!" Greg was letting all of his pent up anger at his friend go. "So if you want to answer those questions before I do - since I think you know what they are - I would be quick!" Connor narrowed his eyes.

"You have a lot of nerve! Demanding an explanation when all that happened is your fault!" It was Greg's turn to be confused.

"Our fault?! Just how is it our fault that you went nuts?!"

"Well, for starters, you left me in Romeo's head while he drilled my brain! Do you have any idea how much pain I had to endure?! I was awake the whole time while those wires burned their way inside anywhere they could." Connor broke down at the memory. Even just remembering it was incredibly painful. When Greg saw the broken look on his face, all of his anger evaporated. He could see just how much Connor was still suffering. He wanted to reach out and comfort him, but Connor soon pulled himself together and glared up at him again.

"You made it clear that I can no longer rely on you during the past month! So from now on, I'm on my own!" he was about to leave it at that and walk away, but Greg wasn't done yet.

"Is that the same thing you're going to tell your parents? If you ever work up the courage to face them again, that is." Connor stopped in his tracks, but didn't turn back or talk.

"Don't you think about them?" Connor just stood in silence. "And even if you think don't consider us a team anymore, aren't we at least friends anymore? Did you ever think about us? How we were feeling while you were gone?" Connor did have an answer to that.

"Well, let's see, you left me on Romeo's experimenting table and didn't even bother to check on me in the following days. I think you made how you were feeling quite clear!" he expected Greg to back away in guilt, but he stood his ground.

"Amaya told me she saw the lab fall down an abyss. She thought you died." Connor scoffed.

"Cool story. She probably didn't even care if that was the truth or not and couldn't be bothered to find out." Now Greg was angry.

"If you say something like that about her again, I'll make whatever Romeo did to you look like a paper cut!" he snarled with venom. "You don't know anything! You haven't seen her during those days! She was devastated! She wasn't herself for days! And you just stomp on her feelings like that?!"

"Then why don't you run back to her to tell her everything and leave me alone?! I'm sure she would feel better!" Connor countered.

"After what you did to us?!" Greg responded. "I already brought her out of the shell she had hidden in after you disappeared. This would break her even worse. Let's just say she has it in for your new persona." though Connor was not surprised to hear that after everything he did to her, but it still hurt. After a few more seconds, Greg spoke again. "But in the end, the fact that you're here today proves one thing."

"Oh, yeah? And what is that?" Connor asked cynically.

"That you don't believe in anything you just said." for the first time during that conversation, Connor jumped in surprise. "You still consider us your friends and your teammates and you want things to return to the way they were." Connor was starting to get irritated. He wanted to end this discussion as soon as he could.

"What does it matter? It's not like they could!" he snapped, but after a short pause, he spoke again and for a moment, his tone turned hopeful. "Could they?" Connor knew he betrayed himself in that moment, but for some reason, he couldn't bring himself to care. Greg sighed.

"I don't know, Connor. You hurt me. I could forgive that. And for what you put your parents through? That is not my place." Greg spoke with a friend calm and friendly voice, but when he reached the next part of his speech, his voice got firm and cold. "But you hurt Amaya. In more ways than one. And that I cannot forgive. She is more important to me than anything." Connor immediately realized what Greg was talking about. To say he was surprised would be an understatement. He never saw even the slightest sign of Greg harboring any feelings for the girl of their group. He was about to speak again, but Greg beat him to it. "I don't think she should find out about this and I will do everything I can to make sure she won't. She's already suffered enough."

Connor wanted to reply. To say that Amaya wasn't the only one to suffer from this situation. But he just couldn't find his voice. Greg's words awakened some feelings in him; guilt, shame and hopelessness. He felt like every chance of mending what was broken between him and the others was now lost. And while he didn't speak, Greg knew exactly how he was feeling and what he was thinking. It was clear that they understood each other and with that, the two boys went their separate ways.

Apparently, Desire was too late with her warning. It was already too late...

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 **AN: Well, looks like things are about to get a whole lot more interesting! Greg now knows Connor is Mad Cat and plans to keep both him and this information from Amaya to spare her from more suffering. And with the PJ Masks turning away from Connor, he'll have to look for comfort elsewhere. Where will he find it you ask? If you want to find out, you'll have to stay tuned! :)**

 **I'll be updating Bad to the Bone next! I'm telling you guys, I'm extremely excited about that fic. Two chapters are half finished and I have TONS of ideas for more! Also working on a LunaCat oneshot that I'm planning to publish during the holiday season. But if I don't make it by then, Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all of you! :) See ya soon!**


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